VPN: When you were appointed into the office, what structures and systems were in place or what wasn’t?

On my assumption of office, I met the special task on Revenue collection –this structure was very important because they achieved a lot by means of formulating and implementing new strategies for revenue collection. However, staffing in the board remained a major problem –there were individuals who were deployed from other parastatals and agencies that did not have the requisite skills or knowledge for revenue collection. In view of that, an extensive staffing review was carried out and the staff who did not have the basic skills were redeployed to their appropriate ministries and parastatals.

Like I said earlier, the mural of the staff was really down too and this was reflected in their dress code (almost akin to touts) and time-liness. And I as the Executive Chairman has to explore ways and strategies raising their mural. So like I said, we encouraged staff not to dress like the very touts that we are trying to do away with and put in place a system of time audit to know everyone’s arrival time to work etc.
Since one of the responsibilities of the board is also to supervise Revenue Collection in the Ministries Departments and Parastatals (MDA’s) were introduced a Revenue progress tracking and checking systems, breaking down their high level targets into smaller chunks of quarterly target reviews for ease of tracking and verification.

VPN: For the benefit of our readers who may not know you, please could you introduce yourself?

Well great pleasure to meet you –my name is Samuel Pam, I attended Township primary School Jos and then proceeded to St. Johns secondary school Jos, then subsequently ABU Zaria for my University education. Following my university training, I joined First Bank Nigeria Plc in 1989 and rose through the ranks from an instructor to the Head of Payments and Collections. In that role, I had the opportunity of interacting with both state Revenue Collection Boards as well as the Federal Inland Revenue collection service. The role mainly involved looking at how to structure and streamline the process of revenue collection. I also worked with a variety of Private sector agencies e.g., MTN, Airtel, DSTV etc, all in the capacity of developing platforms for revenue collection.

VPN: Having worked extensively in the private sector, could you tell us how you found the challenges of moving into the public sector?

As you can imagine the challenges of the public service sector mainly relate to worker’s attitude to work. People have a mentality where they look at their work as simply a source of livelihood without understanding that there is a responsibility to undertake their job to the best of their ability. They therefore have this business-as-usual attitude which is simply counter productive. So coming from the private sector where work is viewed as a business and not just a routine exercise, I realised that a lot had to be done to change the psyche of the people in order to maximally achieve our potential.

Firstly we looked at the how people dressed to work –we realised that a lot of people turned up as though they had just come out of bed or like touts. In our opinion this poor attitude to work was a reflection of their low mural and we encouraged them to dressed appropriately so as to be befitting to their jobs. We then looked at the time keeping to work –we realised a lot of people turned up late and we therefore quickly sought to put processes in place to check and reverse that trend.

We also introduced monthly progress reviews in order to fully understand what had been done in the past month as a means of checking performance and measuring targets. We then sought to make clear the targets so that everyone was clear what was required of him or her and how to achieve the goals. These reviews and assessments are usually done via presentations, where key stakeholders attend and provide feedback, comments and remarks.

VPN: Could you tell our readers what systems were in place in the Board of Internal Revenue prior to your taking over and what wasn’t?

On my assumption of office, I met the special task on Revenue collection –this task force was very important to our organisation, because it allowed the board to achieve a lot by means of formulating and implementing new strategies for revenue collection. However, staffing in the board remained a major problem –for instance, there were individuals who were deployed from other parastatals and agencies that did not have the requisite skills or knowledge for revenue collection. In view of that, an extensive staffing review was carried out and the staff who did not have the basic skills were redeployed to their appropriate ministries and parastatals.

Like I said earlier, the mural of the staff was really low and this was reflected in their dress code (almost akin to touts) and time-liness was a major concern because may of these staff did not place much premium on timeliness. And I as the Executive Chairman, I had to explore ways and strategies of raising their mural. So like I said, we encouraged staff not to dress like the very touts that we are trying to do away with and put in place a system of time audit to check everyone’s arrival time to work etc.

Since one of the responsibilities of the board is also to supervise Revenue Collection in the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA’s), we introduced a Revenue progress tracking and checking systems, breaking down their high level targets into smaller chunks of quarterly target reviews for ease of tracking and verification.

VPN: From the horse’s mouth, please could you give us an idea of the Revenue Collection figures of past administration and what is it now?

On the average, the monthly generation capacity of the State during past administrations was approximately N250 million per month. Since we came on board, we have been able to hike that figure to approximately N750 million per month. Our figure is approximately 300% higher than what was realised in the past and we are pleased that as an organisation we are able to contribute in such ways to the development of the state. I cannot understate the contribution of staff and colleagues who have worked tirelessly for the achievement of this feat, but most of the all, the support we enjoyed from the Executive Governor was indeed priceless.

It should however be noted that approximately 75 – 80% of this figure comes from Pay-as-you-earn (PAYE), meaning a higher proportion of the money realised comes from income taxes as opposed to from core income generation sources such as business levies etc. But we are happy that what we have achieved serves as a good starting point for further expansion into those lofty heights. It goes without saying that the accounting systems that were in place in the past, allowed money to be leaked and diverted from a variety of sources. There was no proper audit or accounting system that tracked money from its generation source all the way to its collection, and even if there was the implementation of the system was quite shoddy.

So our first task when we came in, was to seek out ways of blocking those leakage channels. One of the things we implemented was the generation of what is called a Tax Identification Number (TIN), which enables Government to identify each tax account, measure its performance and take remedial action appropriately. A TIN provides a data-bank and history source that allows auditors or the appropriate individuals to go back through tax accounts and see their history.

Currently, as I speak our Special Task Force on Tax Collection are analysing and exploring other avenues of tax collection as side the traditional PAYE which accounts for a large percentage of money generated.

VPN: Could you tell us how you intend to boost the revenue generation capacity of the state outside Pay-as-you-earn (as you said earlier)?

Well, the game changer for us in 2014 would be if we are able to bring the informal sector (i.e., the street hawkers and traders) who are not in the current tax net into our system. So in that regards, during 2014 we are looking to introduce what is called a presumptive tax –this tax regime would apply to specific businesses in the informal sector who for instance do not have a detailed accounting system. It would be a flat tax rate which would apply to these businesses. So for the shoe shiner who walks from place to place soliciting clients we would assess his business and then put him in a particular tax bracket. The tax bracket would be based on certain criteria which would ultimately lead to the categorisation of whether the business falls in the low end, medium end or high income end for tax purposes. And there would be a flat tax rate for each of these specific categories.

Now, there is no doubt that this concept would be new to people in this sector (i.e., the informal sector), who are not used to paying tax. So we have decided to undertake what is referred to as tax education and sensitisation. As a first step, we are looking to invite trade unions to come to the round table for consultation and discussion to be certain they understand the tax regime and to get buy-in and endorsement from them. Again, since the State Government has been very diligent in undertaking laudable projects, people can see where their money is going to and as such, it would make our job of sensitisation a lot easier.

VPN: Given how much you have been able to generate in terms of revenue, is there a figure of future projection of the revenue target the state can generate in the near and medium term?

Well, it is difficult for me to give you figures in that respect but I would say the scope for increasing our revenue generation in the state is very high. Especially if we take it upon ourselves to legislate for revenue collection as many states in the Federation have already done. If we legislate in key areas in respect of the various MDA, we can significantly hike our revenue generation capacity to levels over and beyond what they currently are.

For example, in Kaduna and Kano there is a tourism levy in place for all hotel customers –this tax is approximately 2% of the total amount paid. It is therefore ironic that Plateau state, which prides itself as the Home of Peace and Tourism does not have such a levy.

In Wase, there is currently solid minerals extraction going on in the Gimbi area of the LGA and even though the royalty in respect of this is accrued to the Federal Government, Plateau state can impose a haulage tax on the Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs). This can be a significant source of revenue for the state etc.

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We have increased the internally generated revenue of Plateau from N250 Million to approx. N750 Million (Excl. interview with Samuel Pam, Exec. Chairman of Internal Revenue Service)