The Rivers Government says it has saved a total of N34 billion for the “rainy day.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Chibuike Amaechi, at the inception of his administration in 2007, had promised to make a compulsory saving of N1 billion monthly from the state allocations.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Dr Chamberlain Peterside, made this known to newsmen? at a press briefing in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Peterside, who did not say when exactly the savings started, said that the money was secured and had not been touched.
He said that the government had tried to stem ghost salaries through the production of the payroll, saying the pay slips were not made available to workers.
Peterside said the monthly expenditure in the state was N8 billion and out of it, salaries took N6 billion, while N750 million was for pension and N1 billion overhead.
He said that the government was trying to make the state viable for investment, saying that investment was one of the ways to increase life expectancy of the people.
“We follow due process in the release of money for transparency,’’ he said.
The Chairman, state Board of Internal Revenue, Mrs Onene Obele-Oshoko, said that there was need for everybody in the state to pay tax.
Obele-Oshoko said the Amaechi’s administration was doing well, especially in infrastructure development.
She said that the roads in the state were now better than they were before the administration came into office.
“The people should support the administration in its work by paying their taxes as at and when due,’’ she said.
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