A four-man Committee set up to look into the activities of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), has been inaugurated by he Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Bassey Albert Akpan with a charge to find out areas of leakage and plug same.

Performing the ceremony in his office, Mr. Akpan reminded the Committee that under the new revenue framework of the present Administration, no revenue officer is permitted to tamper with government’s funds without due approval from appropriate quarters.

He stated that with the present global economic meltdown biting hard on all, every state in the federation is expected to look inwards for alternative revenue source and Akwa Ibom State cannot afford to be left behind.

Commissioner Akpan also opined that the IRS is to be managed as a profit making concern so as to meet its set targets, as is done in States like Lagos, etc.

While charging the Committee to ensure effectiveness, the Finance Boss urged them to liaise with the Chairman and all Directorates of the IRS in order to be conversant with and understand the modus operandi of the various tax offices and stressed the need for a thorough investigation.

Mr. Akpan explained that the Committee’s report, will be further subjected to empirical tests by the external consultants to ascertain the veracity of the report, and gave the Committee three months to submit its report.

He listed the Committee’s terms of reference to include: looking critically into the activities of the IRS in the last five years; examining the revenue generation efforts of the IRS; finding out areas of leakages and recommending ways of plugging same as well as making recommendations for a mass re-organisation of the IRS, with view to injecting fresh ideas into the system.

Responding on behalf of his members, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr. Eshiet Ikpe, while expressing appreciation to the Commissioner for finding them worthy of the appointment, pledged his Committee’s readiness to work assiduously towards achieving the desired objective to justify the confidence reposed on them.

Other members of the committee include: Mr. Isaiah Ntekim, Chief Auditor, Mr. Effiong Umoumoh, while Mrs. Ekaette Udo Isaiah, an Administrative Officer, is to serve as the Secretary. In a related development the Chairman of Internal Revenue Service, Elder Inyang Etuk has called on Staff to show more commitment to their duties.

Elder Inyang Etuk who made the call in an emergency meeting with the Staff recently, shed more light on the functions of the committee set-up by the State Government to reorganize the board, adding that the committee is not to witch hunt anybody, but to put things in their right perspective.

He implored the Staff to give the committee maximum support by giving useful information that will help the committee to perform their duty effectively and advised the Staff not to entertain fears about the envisaged reorganization of the board, but to put in more efforts in revenue generation, so that more funds can be raked into the State coffers.