The Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, has said
the state government will authenticate academic certificates of
the state civil servants.
He also said the planned audit of workers in the state would
assist in stamping out certificate racketeering.
The governor spoke during a meeting with heads and bursars of
the state-owned tertiary institutions on Tuesday in Ilorin, the
Kwara State capital.
He also said no form of blackmail and misinformation would
deter his administration from implementing measures that
would boost the Internally Generated Revenue of the state.
He stated that the government would continue to meet its
obligations to the people and survive the current economic
downturn by raising its IGR.
According to him, while it is common for some people to resist
change, the best interest of the people must prevail at all times.
It will be recalled that the government’s directive to tertiary
institutions to open single revenue accounts with designated
banks in a pilot scheme was greeted with speculations, saying
that it was planning to hand the management of the institutions
to its holding company, Harmony Holdings Limited.
The governor called on the people to ignore such rumours.
He stated that the newly-established Kwara State Internal
Revenue Service remained the only body authorised by law to
collect and manage all state and local governments revenues.
He reassured the people that the single revenue accounts would
ensure transparency and budgeting, as government would have
a better idea of the revenue coming into the coffers of the
affected agencies and therefore support them, where necessary.
He called on the heads of tertiary institutions to embrace the
single revenue account as the new scheme would be a litmus
test of their managerial ability.
Ahmed said that under the new scheme, any revenue
transaction outside the single revenue account would be
regarded as fraudulent and those found culpable would be
punished accordingly.