The new Executive Chairman of Imo Internal Revenue Service, (IIRS), Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwunonso Okeke has assured staff and the government of Imo state of glorious times ahead.
In his first interaction with the senior staff of IIRS, the chairman who replaced Chief Emeka Udegbulem said he has come to make IIRS a place of pride and an engine room to drive development in the state.
He said with the dwindling receipts from the federation account, states are becoming strategic and ingenuous in the way they shore up internally generated revenue for development.
“It is no longer debatable that the era when states depended on oil receipts from Abuja is long gone. Because of the dwindling oil receipts from the federation account, it is important for states to look inwards. In fact, serious states are looking inwards and this is part of the mandate given to me by governor Hope Uzodimma.
“We are taking over the complete process and procedures in this place. Things will change. The era where people come to work without having anything to do is gone. We will put all available manpower to appropriate use.
“We will hit the ground running because we only have a three-month mandate by His Excellency to turn around the revenue fortunes of the state,” Dr Okeke assured.
On the issue of staff welfare, Okeke assured the staff of improved welfare and reiterated that the ongoing staff audit and verification is to know the size and competencies of the staff and personnel of the Service. “After the staff audit and verification, confirmation and promotion would follow. The exercise is to identify the competencies of staff and fix them in the right places. It is not meant to witch-hunt anybody,” he assured.