Kaduna – The Kaduna State Government said on Tuesday it would support the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to open an office in Kaduna to deal with corruption cases in the state.

Sulaiman Kwari, the State Commissioner for Finance, said in Kaduna while briefing newsmen on the one year anniversary of Gov. Nasiru El-Rufa’i.

Kwari said that the governor had agreed to provide office accommodation for the commission to facilitate the fight against corruption in the state.

“The EFCC is planning to open an office in Kaduna. We should celebrate that, as they will not only go after the big, big people, they will also go after the small ones who are being dishonest.

“People will definitely be run after. Crime is crime,“ Kwari said.

He said that the state government had put various measures to block financial leakages, by closing down 450 accounts run by ministries, departments and agencies, and introducing the Treasury Single Account (TSA).

“Imagine the case where the state government will go to commercial banks to borrow funds that belong to its agencies and pay interests rate to the banks.

“We have streamlined the government accounts into fewer number through the TSA to ensure prudence and accountability.

“We also introduced the Bank Verification Number (BVN), so that only those workers with verified numbers would be paid salaries in the state.“

The Commissioner said that the government had abolished the use of cash receipts in tax collection due to the discovery of duplications and dishonesty in the system.

“We now have a new tax law in place to ensure that all taxes belonging to government are paid direct into specified government accounts.“

The commissioner added that the administration had introduced zero subsidy in the state fertiliser procurement to tackle the endemic racketeering discovered in the old system.

“The fertilizer subsidy only benefitted a few group not the farmers it was meant for.“

Kwari noted that when the administration came into power in May 2015, it discovered that most of the funds meant to service the over eight million people in the state was spent on civil servants.

“Imagine the situation where one person is taking the salaries meant for 20 people. Salaries of 10 people going into one account number.

“A case of a level eight officer collecting the salary of a permanent secretary and similar other cases were discovered and blocked through the TSA and BVN.“

The commissioner said that the administration had also reduced the cost of governance, as only 30 per cent of funds budgeted for over head was utilised at the end of the first quarter.

He urged people of the state to be patient, saying that the government also “feels their pains”.