Cost Of Governance: FG To Slash Salaries, Merge Agencies – Finance Minister

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the salaries committee to review the payroll and number of agencies in the country with a view to cut cost of governance in the country.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who announced this on Tuesday at a ‘National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria,’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission, pointedly said that all agencies must come together to trim its cost amid the country’s dwindling revenue.

She also said that the government will also remove some unnecessary items from the budget as part of the moves.

Zainab Ahmed said the government has approved N13.88trn budget with a deficit of over N5.6trn with a projected revenue of N7.98trn to fund part of the 2021 budget.

She said; “We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our 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, 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.”

Zainab Ahmed also said that the Federal Government  will equally review the number of government agencies in terms of their mandates, adding that for agencies with the same mandate, the government will look at how to merge the two.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye, noted that the cost of governance is the “driver of corruption in Nigeria.”

Owasanoye said the government has committed to improving the country’s revenue from new and existing sources, adding that the government’s commitment to streamline payroll, removal of subsidies and reduction of the cost of contracts and procurement are all for the benefits of the poor and vulnerable.

The ICPC boss noted that a critical area of concern is payroll padding and the phenomenon of ghost workers just as he lamented the duplication of projects such as the constituency projects of lawmakers.

Owasanoye noted that funding for such projects are usually released without any mechanism for monitoring, evaluation and reconciliation of the funding.

He cited a project executed by the Redeemed Christian Church of God which was inadvertently diverted as an executive project.