The Federal Government has so far
uncovered 45,000 ghost workers in its bid to eliminate
waste in its expenditure.
Minister of State, Finance, Dr.
Yerima Ngama, said this on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the outcome
of the weekly Federal Executive Council presided over by President Goodluck
Jonathan.
He briefed State House correspondents
alongside the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, and the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru.
Ngama and Ashiru had earlier briefed
the FEC of their ministries’ achievements and challenges in 2012.
Ngama said the ghost workers were uncovered in
215 Ministries, Departments and Agencies where his ministry had already
introduced the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
Under the scheme, he said 153,019
members of staff had so far been audited as at January 2013.
With the discovery, he said about
N100bn was already being saved in form of salary bill.
He added that efforts were being made
to continue the exercise in the remaining 321 MDAs with a view to identifying
other ghost workers still in the system.
He said the government’s decision was
one of the ways of rationalising the nation’s recurrent expenditure.
Ngama said the major problem that
distorted current expenditure in the country was the across-the-board increase
in salary in 2010.
Ngama regretted that although the
Federal Government succeeded in breaking the budget jinx by sending the 2013
Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly last September, it had yet to be
signed into law.
He said, “This year, we have broken
the budget jinx. We were able to submit the budget in record time in
September and it was passed on December 20, 2012.
“They (members of the National
Assembly) have returned the document to us. We have some few things to sort out
before it is signed.”
The minister said in all, the Federal
Government had managed the nation’s economy well to the extent that it was
attracting more foreign investors daily.
Maku said Jonathan, during the FEC,
set up an inter-ministerial committee to go round the world and take inventory
of Federal Government’s assets abroad that the government needs to work on to
add value.
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Politics
45,000 ghost workers. Would it not have been wise to give those spaces to the stream of unemployed youth flooding the streets?
ReplyDeletePresident Jonathan,please direct that 45,000 young job seekers be given employment now before it is too late. Your name will be written in gold forever and see how God will reward you sir.
ReplyDelete