4th October 2016 was the day appointment letters were issued to the newly employed young, vibrant and energetic Kogites and recruited into the workforce of KGIRS as Revenue Officers after the Executive Governor of the State, Alh Yahaya Bello in his capacity decided to grant full autonomy to the then Kogi State board of Internal Revenue with the sole aim of repositioning revenue generation in the State to enable the State finance itself in the near future. To further express the Governor’s readiness to reposition KGIRS to make it compete with other States that are doing well in terms of revenue generation, he erected an ultra modern edifice called Kogi State Revenue House for the smooth running of its operations.
This was a smart move by the Governor, considering his background from the Revenue mobilization, allocations and fiscal commission. But this smart move has been jeopardized by all the successive management of KGIRS by the unjust treatment of the Revenue Officers and also failing to prioritize staff welfare while prioritizing what’s going into their pockets. KGIRS management has never gotten it right from the very start. It is a standard practice globally that any organization who’s responsibility is to collect money from people, the staff of that organization must well be taken care of if that organization really mean business but the reverse is the case at KGIRS.
A Revenue Officer said, “on this faithful day (4th October 2016), A journey of hopelessness, despair, frustration, maladministration, injustice and corruption started. A date that was supposed to be in the good record of each Revenue Officers of KGIRS. A date we thought we had gotten a job that will take care of our basic needs. On that faithful day, we thought we were collecting appointment letter, unknown to us that we were collecting what will turn out to be a disappointment letter and that is what it is today. Most of we the Revenue Officers were having income that could take care of our basic needs but we left them to come to KGIRS with the thought that it’ll be better over here but we were disappointed. It has been miseries upon miseries”.
Upon employment in 2016, these revenue officers started with #45,000 stipend with the hope that when they are confirmed, they’ll start collecting reasonable salary i.e #145,000 and #155,000 for Revenue Officers 1&2 respectively as they were told. If the then Management had gone by their words, it would have bridged this unreasonable gap between the revenue officers and the next in cadre (Assistant Manager). To their dismay, when they were finally confirmed, the Management designed an unreasonable and unthinkable salary structure (as shown below) that cannot be found anywhere, in any organization/establishment in the world. This particular salary structure is being strongly defended at any point by one of the Directors (Alh. Sule Salihu) who is believed to be the person behind this unreasonable salary structure that has turn some Revenue Officers into beggars and this salary structure now seems impossible to correct. There are rumors that this particular Director now has numerous investments (cows, estates, shares etc) running into millions of Naira which he all got during his stay in KGIRS while the Revenue Officers who are the major drivers of Revenue he has used to establish himself are living a sorry life. Another Revenue Officer said, “We all know the condition of these Directors when they joined KGIRS in 2016. Some of them came in with oversized coat which they called suit. Some of them came with worn clothes. Some Revenue officers were even dressing more than them.”
Following the removal of the former Chairman of KGIRS Mr. Aliu Nda Salami, an Interim Management Committee (IMC) was set up by the Executive Governor to take over the affairs of KGIRS with clear instruction from the Executive Governor to reposition the Service. The Revenue Officers thought a sigh of relieve has finally come, they thought the IMC was coming to right all the wrongs in KGIRS since it’s inception but to their dismay, it was a case of ‘from frying pan to fire’. Things relatively got worse after the tenure of the IMC. The revenue officers thought the people that’ll fight for them are here, but they were wrong, the IMC didn’t solved a single of the many problems KGIRS is facing rather they strike deal for their pockets and left KGIRS worse than they met it.
They crippled KGIRS so much to the point that they must sanction every action of the current Executive Chairman. This should give you a glimpse that the people around Yahaya Bello don’t want the best for him.
Below is the unreasonable and unthinkable salary structure of KGIRS:
- Executive Chairman- #1,000,000. (With a whooping sum of #5,000,000 imprest)
- Directors- #600,000 (with #200,000 imprest)
- Principal managers- #321,000
- Senior managers- #294,000
- Manager- #220,000
- Deputy manager- #187,000
- Assistant manager- #174,000
- Revenue officer 1- #75,000
- Revenue officer 2- #59,000
- Drivers- #33,000
- Security- #31,000
Do notice the whooping difference between what the Revenue Officers (the drivers of revenue) and Assistant managers earn? A whooping sum of #100,000 difference. You mean well educated and experienced men sat down to design this mess? Unbelievable! The disparity between the revenue officers down to the Securities and from the Assistant Manager up to the Executive Chairman is clear and cannot be justified either by performance, by dedication, by year of service or by years of working experience. This is clear injustice at KGIRS and there can’t be progress where there’s no justice because progress is a multiplier effect of Justice. Similarly, injustice breeds regression and the level of injustice in KGIRS has led to the decline in Revenue Officers morale leading to poor performance in revenue generation.
Another Revenue Officer narrates, “This is what we have been earning for the past 5 years; no promotion, no bonuses, no allowances, no 13 month, no welfare package, no festive period package. Once they pay us the 59k at the end of the month, that’ll be all. While prices of commodities are skyrocketing everyday. Spaghetti that was #180 five years ago is now #350 and may get to #500 before the year runs out but interestingly, I am still collecting 59k till date. It’ll interest you to know that as big as KGIRS is, they’re yet to develop a working policy after 5 years of existence, all the successive management have been running KGIRS from their head. Also, there’s no career growth at KGIRS.”
It is learnt that the normal practice at KGIRS is that new intakes will be on probation for 6 months and then be confirmed afterwards but there are new intakes that have been on probation for almost two years now. All attempts to make the Service confirm these set of young graduate fell to deaf ears. This has seriously eroded the level of commitment of these young intakes.
In an organization where the main drivers of the Revenue are earning as low as #59,000 during this period of inflation and economic hardship, the Executive Chairman is living an opulent life. The case of revenue officers in KGIRS is a case of penury in the midst of opulence. It is learnt that the Service approved a whooping sum of #7,000,000 to take care of this yet to be confirmed Chairman’s accommodation for two years while the Service went further to spend a staggering sum of #4,000,000 to furnish the said rented apartment. It is learnt that all efforts to convince the Chairman that all these amount can erect an edifice as permanent residence for subsequent Chairman of the Service fell on deaf ears.
It is also learnt that the Chairman collects illegal DTA of #400,000 per night outside Lokoja without duty coverage.
It is rumored that he is currently building a mansion at Koton Karfe and also building an Estate in Abuja while the main drivers of the Revenue are living in bondage.
It is also learnt that almost all the operational vehicles has been grounded because the Chairman has refused to approve funds for repair, some of the vehicles needing as low as #15,000 to get repaired. It is also learnt that sometimes the generator plant will break down for days because the Chairman is always reluctant to approve fund for running of the Service but he has forgotten that you use money to look for money. He sees everyone in the Service as a thief but he’s forgotten that it’s only a thief that can recognize a thief, said by a staff.
Under this current Chairman, the heads of Departments/Units have resorted to using their personal money to buy and fix office stationeries due to his reluctance to approve any request sent to him as he sees everyone as a thief and when he decides to approve some request, he’ll personally call where that particular item is sold to confirm the price, no matter how small the item is, narrated by a staff. Another staff said there was a time he personally went to buy motor battery for one of the operational vehicles.
Lack of trust for all the staff of the Service is evident except for only one Director, Mr. Olubunmi Ajayi who is his right hand man and his accomplice in all the dirty dealings and corrupt practices currently going on in the Service. This very Director just resumed from suspension for mismanagement of the Service’s fund and misleading all the previous Executive chairmen of the service. With no single doubt, he has negatively contributed greatly to the decline of KGIRS. His utterances to the Revenue Officers alone can lower their morale. Utterances like: “the Service is doing you a favor for employing you”, “If you’re not more interested in the job, you can resign”, “there are thousands of people out there, looking for this opportunity”. Recently, this same Director reportedly handed over a Revenue Officer of the Service to the security agency and this staff was later moved out of the State and jailed in an entirely different State over a trivial issue that he was not guilty of. An issue that would have been solved amicably within the State. Almost all the staff at Revenue house and all the Area Offices in Lokoja township had to stage a little peaceful protest before the Management woke up from their slumber to free the said staff.
“The big question now is who will right all the wrongs in KGIRS that has piled up over the past 5 years? We are at this point, calling on Alh. Yahaya Adoza Bello that has zero tolerance for ineptitude and irregularities to intervene and come to our rescue”, another Revenue Officer lamented.
Instead of the Executive Chairman to toe the path of his predecessor, Mr. Aliu Nda Salami to harness the abundant revenue opportunities in the State, he was reportedly busy looking for a thief by auditing all the Units and Departments, an exercise that ended in futility.
In a financial organization like KGIRS where a section of the staff are being unjustly treated and where the welfare of the staff is not prioritized while staff commitment and loyalty is demanded is tantamount to trying to get blood out of a stone.
Bello Adeiza writes from Kogi state