Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun has said the state government loses between N3 billion and N5 billion monthly to haulage revenue collectors.
The governor said the fraud was perpetrated through cheating, extortion, use of fake receipts and failure to remit the money collected to government coffers.
He regretted that the loss was hurting the government and limiting its capacity to serve the people effectively.
Amosun spoke yesterday in Abeokuta, the state capital, while addressing stakeholders during the kick-off ceremony of the “Harmonisation of Haulage Revenue Collection in Ogun State”.
The governor noted that there were 63 approved toll points across the state, yet not much was coming in because of “leakages, illegal toll collection and extortion of money from payers without remitting (same) to the government”.
He added: “This particular scheme is an improvement on the Haulage Revenue Collection Scheme. It is aimed at correcting the hitherto haphazard scheme, which allowed unscrupulous individuals to extort money from payers without remitting same to the government coffers.
“No wonder our haulage drivers have been groaning under multiple collection that they have been subjected to. It is important to note that haulage collection should ordinarily come under the purview of the civil service structure.
“But we decided to contract the collection to our people. Our aim was to create more openings through which we could empower more people. But I must confess that our intervention was grossly misconstrued and largely abused by majority of the participants.
“We found out that a large chunk of generated revenue was not remitted to government and some of the operators have gone beyond the brief of the delegated authority.
“As government, we cannot allow such abuse, which has led to major revenue loss and extortion of our people. It is for the reason that a technical committee was set up to look into how haulage revenue could be collected in a profitable manner to government and operators while also maintaining decorum and sanity.
“Even within government circle, people were printing fake receipts. We lose between N3 billion and N5 billion monthly because some people are stealing the money. The era of people doing what they liked is over.”
Amosun said to curb the inadequacies and block leakages his administration came up with the harmonisation of haulage revenue collection.
The governor said the new scheme would also prevent “multiplicity” in the collection of such revenue.
He added that the new strategy would also bring in more revenue from the revenue stream, create avenue for easy monitoring exercise and assess performance of revenue consultants as well as allows flexibility in payment.
Also, Finance Commissioner Adewale Oshinowo said prior to the new initiative, collection of haulage revenue was haphazard and led to the loss of huge revenue to the state.
The commissioner said a technical committee, comprising officials of the ministries of Finance, Commerce and Industry, Agriculture, Forestry and Environment, was set up to resolve hiccups in collecting the revenue and stop irregularities.
He said: “The development will further block revenue leakages, if not eradicate it, and curb illegal toll collection, as the new tickets are tamper-proof.
“Our strategies and basis for the product also include provision of signposts at toll points, provision of portal cabins at the toll points, to accommodate the revenue agents, provision of identification cards and we have also ensured adequate sensitisation of stakeholders and the public through print and electronic media.”