Bayelsa Revenue Boss Ayawei Faults  FG’s “Insolvency”

TRACKING _____As civil society groups poise for a showdown over reports describing Bayelsa and other five states as insolvency states due to low Internally Generated Revenues (I G Rs ), the Bayelsa state Chairman of Board of Internal Revenue, Dr. Nimibofa Ayawei has faulted the Annual States Viability Index (ASVI) report , saying that the prospect of the state’s IGR is very bright.

The Federal Government on Monday raised the alarm over poor Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by state governments, declaring that Bayelsa, Kebbi, Borno, Katsina and Taraba States have become insolvent as they have the “extremely poor IGR”.

The alarm which was raised by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) Chairman, Mr Elias Mbam, noted that the Federation Account was currently over stressed by the unending demands of the three tiers of government, urging states to evolve creative ways of fattening their IGR if the strain on the federal purse is to reduce.

On the flip side, Rivers, Kaduna, Enugu, Kwara, Zamfara posted impressive IGR in 2019.

‘The report meant the ratio of the Federal statutory allocation vis-a-vis IGR. Our IGR has been on the increase since our Board Started and there is the possibility of improvement in the years to come, so there should be no cause for worries.

“In 2016 we generated N7,905,458,280.30, in 2017 we raked in N12,528,860,605.63, in 2018 N13,636,545,716.78 and 2019 we made N16,342,762.532.23 .What that report is about is the FAAC vis-a-vis the IGR , “Bayelsa have no cause to worry because the state’s IGR has improved tremendously and our prospects are bright.”

He however stated that the IGR for 2019 will be low because of the Coronavirus pandemic which resulted to shutdown of operations of some oil servicing companies that pay revenues to the state

Ayawei also revealed that the state is challenging some Federal laws inhibiting revenue generation of states, adding that the state won the matter at the lower court prompting the federal Government to appeal the matter.

“The civil society groups should not take the said report hook-line and sinker because the claims of insolvency was not appropriate in the context it was used in the report.”

He said without FAAC allocation to states, some States would go bankrupt adding that only about five states are solvent without FAAC allocation in the country.

Ayawei who is fondly called DNA by his admirers stressed further that the state can fund her expenditures without loans, because of the increase IGR by his board, adding that the report have further harp on the need for restructuring of the Federation.

It would be recalled that scores of Civil Society groups and Non-Governmental Organizations in Bayelsa State, under the aegis of Bayelsa Non-Governmental Organizations Forum (BANFOF) wrote to the State Governor, Sen. Douye Diri over the poor rating of the state as “Insolvent” by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and fiscal Commission (RMAFC) the low level of Internally Generated Revenue in the State.

The RMAFC boss Shuaib had noted that the report has shown that, “Without the monthly disbursement from the Federation Account, many states cannot survive as the indices showed that seven States are bankrupt due to very poor IGR that were far below 10% of their receipts from the Federation Account”.

He stated that apart from Lagos and Ogun States that ranked high in the revenue generation in 2019, more states have recorded impressive and encouraging IGR in 2019 compared to 2018.

The report shows that only Rivers, Kaduna, Enugu, Kwara and Zamfara States did well with regards to impressive revenue generation in 2019 compared to their IGR in the previous year 2018 by improving more than 10%.

The Bayelsa State Government, had on Tuesday through its technical adviser on treasury and revenue generation, Hon. Timipre Seipulo , during the third edition of transparency brief for the months of May, June and July, 2020, demanded for the control of their oil and gas resources maintaining that if it was in control of it’s resources, the state wouldn’t have been one of the states mentioned by federal government to be bankrupt.

According to Timipre Seipulo, assuming the federating nature was not the way it works, probably the state’s internally generated revenue should have included revenue from oil and gas,” Because oil and gas are our own natural resources. But unfortunately because of the federating nature, a lot of things are determined by the federal government. We also know that a lot of fiscal policies are driven by the government. That is why you see that we call for restructuring from the federal government”.

“The few states that they called, we know that some states something naturally supports their revenue structure. That is why they said only few states have met their revenue expectations. The state government was agitating that the oil and gas companies operating in the South South region should pay taxes to the states. Federal Inland Revenue is collecting monies that should come to the state. If you look at the federating structure and the type of federation we operate, then you can see these developments. For the fact that all states and the federal government depend on these allocations, you cannot say that any state is technically insolvent”.