Ogun set to block financial leakages in forest reserves

As part of efforts to block financial leakages and shore up its revenue in 2014, the Ogun State government has warned stakeholders in the forestry sub-sector to follow due process always while carrying out transactions to avoid sanctions. The government said lots of revenues meant for the government were lost due to sharp practises in the state-owned forest reserves last year.

According to Adebayo Fari, commissioner for forestry, information showed that quite a lot of revenue due to government coffers was last year lost to sharp practises perpetrated by some dubious stakeholders in the forestry sub-sectors, noting that government would not tolerate such this year.

Fari, who addressed the press shortly after he had met with workers at various revenue collection points of the Ministry of Forestry across the state, underscored the need for timber contractors and other stakeholders in the sector to ensure prompt and correct payment of funds into appropriate government coffers.

To him, “it is necessary to sensitise and caution toll collectors to address cases of laxity noted in the out-gone year,” but affirmed that government could not afford losing revenue that could be utilised for developmental purposes to unscrupulous timber dealers and contractors.

While discouraging stakeholders against sharp practises leading to financial leakages, Fari disclosed that government would organise capacity building programmes for the forest reserves officers and toll collectors to re-invigorate revenue generation mechanism of the ministry, block leakages and maximise the utilisation of wood resources of the state.

He said: “What we intend to do now is to re-engineer the revenue generating capacity of the ministry. One of the things we would do is to build the capacity of our toll collectors and put in place proper monitoring of their activities so as to reinforce revenue generation this year.”

Meanwhile, government has begun a re-demarcation exercise as part of measures to reclaim hectares of land lost to encroachers and illegal cocoa farmers within its forest reserves.

The commissioner pointed out that the exercise would be carried-out in Forest Reserve Areas J1, J3, J4 and J6; Omo Forest Reserves and would also determine the original boundaries of the reserves, actual size of the farmers’ farms and determine the limit of their operations.

It would be recalled that few months ago, the state government had announced that over 100,000 hectares of the total 137,000 hectares of land in Omo Forest Reserves had been encroached upon and depleted by some cocoa farmers that farm and operate in that axis.

He therefore urged fresh cocoa farmers to approach the state ministry of agriculture for land allocation, saying the forest reserves were strictly meant for cultivation of trees and other forest resources.

“Government would not fold its arm and watch some people in the state destroy the commonwealth of the whole state, and any farmer who is interested in cocoa farming should approach the ministry of agriculture for land. Farmers residing in the reserve are only permitted to plant food crops and not cash crops,” he said.

On efforts to rejuvenate the forest reserves, he noted that the Governor Amosun’s administration was already partnering all stakeholders to embark on mass tree planting in the reserves, revealing that plans were underway to give free tree seedlings to timber contractors with strict instructions that they must regenerate at least 50 percent of the portion allocated to them.

By: RAZAQ AYINLA