By Abba Gwale
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the salary committee to review payroll and also review the number of agencies.
Zainab revealed this on Tuesday in an ongoing National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance organized by Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.
She said the Nigerian government will also remove some unnecessary items from the 2021 budget in a move to reduce the cost of governance in the country.
It will be recalled that President Muhammad Buhari had approved a 13.88tr with a deficit of over 5.6tr which include a revenue of 7.98tr which will also fund the budget.
She said, “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.”
The minister further revealed that all agencies must come together to trim their costs because of the country’s dwindling revenue.
“We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures. Expenditures that we can do without.
Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary.
Mr President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair and work together with the head of service and other members of the committee to review the government pay rolls in terms of stepping down on cost,” she added
She however said that the current administration will also look at the number of government agencies in terms of their mandates adding that agencies with the same mandate will probably merge together
In his address, Bolaji Owasanoye, Chairman of the ICPC, stressed that the cost of governance is the driver of corruption in Nigeria saying that government has committed to improving the country’s revenue from new and existing sources.
He narrated government’s commitment to review payroll, removal of subsidies and reduction of the cost of contracts and procurement are all for the benefits of the poor and vulnerable.
He highlighted that critical area of concern was payroll padding and the phenomenon of ghost workers, he also lamented the duplication of projects such as the constituency projects of lawmakers.
“Funding for such projects are usually released without any mechanism for monitoring and evaluation and reconciliation of the funding,” he continued.
The ICPC boss cited a project executed by the Redeemed Christian Church of God which was inadvertently diverted as an executive project.
