By Vincent Ujumadu
AWKA—AN 82 –member coalition of Non–Governmental Organizations, NGOs, operating in Anambra State, has attributed the state’s inability to generate adequate revenue internally, despite its revenue potentials, to corrupt practices and use of unqualified staff for revenue generation.

The state is said to be generating about N500 million monthly which, experts say, is grossly inadequate for a state that had great revenue windows as Onitsha and Nnewi.

Addressing newsmen in Awka yesterday after carrying out a case study of three selected local government areas on the impact of revenue generation mechanism in Anambra State, sponsored by the European Union, EU, Coordinator of the Coalition for Transparency and Good Governance, COTAGG, Mr. Michael Opia, said if the state government could put certain things right, the state’s IGR would definitely improve.

The two-week case study was done in Anambra East, Idemili South and Ogbaru local government areas of the state.

Opia said that apart from corruption, it was discovered that there was so much ignorance on the part of the public on corrupt practices in IGR system, lack of proper finance management and lack of due process in the appointment of revenue collectors and consultants.

According to him, even the workers of the Board of Internal Revenue are not properly equipped to carry out their duties, while consultants often engaged by government appear to be fending more for themselves, thus leading to unnecessary leakages in the system.

“The problem started in 1992 when the then state government used IGR windows to settle politicians who assisted in enthroning the government. Since then, things have gone wrong and those entrenched in the system are not ready to give up. It requires political will to stop them and if government is ready to do this, the revenue profile of the state will improve.

“Anambra State has potentials to generate more than N10 billion annually with the available IGR windows. For instance, there are about 63 major markets that can generate billions every month, but the most of the revenue from them are diverted into private pockets.

“We are very optimistic that with the strong political will demonstrated so far by the present governor, Mr. Peter Obi, revenue profile of the state could be enhanced to be second to that of Lagos State,” he said.