The Federal Government has so far eliminated 56,000 ghost workers who
have been drawing salaries from the nation’s coffers for years, thereby
increasing government’s recurrent expenditure.
The government has therefore saved N161.9bn that would have gone to the
ghost workers as of March 2014.
This was contained in a book, “The transformation agenda: Reviewing
progress, matching forward,” presented by President Goodluck Jonathan on
Thursday in Abuja as part of activities marking the nation’s Democracy Day.
The 98-page book catalogues the achievements of the present
administration between 2013 and 2014.
According to the book published by the Office of the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, the feat was achieved through the Integrated
Personnel and Payroll Information System.
It said the decision to put the IPPIS in place was borne out the various
fiscal challenges faced by the nation’s economy at the onset of Jonathan’s
administration.
It said, “In terms of fiscal deficit, in 2010, the government’s fiscal
deficit stood at 3.5 per cent of GDP, despite the maximum three per cent
deficit stipulated by Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“On government spending, a large chunk of government expenditure was
focused on recurrent items such as the cost of running several government
agencies with overlapping responsibilities and a huge wage bill, leaving little
fiscal space for investment in critical infrastructure that could drive
economic growth.
In 2010, recurrent expenditures took 73.4 per cent of the total FGN
budget while capital expenditures stood at just 26.6 per cent.
“On debt, Federal Government’s debt was rising rapidly, reaching N7.5
trillion at the end of 2012 and N10.2 trillion at the end of March 2014.
“On revenue, Nigeria needed to diversify its revenue base and reduce its
dependence on oil revenues which are subject to volatile prices.”
According to the book, the Government Integrated Financial Management
Information System was introduced in 2012 to improve the acquisition,
allocation, utilisation and conservation of the government’s resources.
It said the system used automated and integrated economic information to
track government expenditures and minimise waste.
It added that the system was used to execute 58 per cent of the 2013
budget while it is expected that 100 per cent of the 2014 budget would be
executed, using the programme.
The book further revealed that the government had created a Treasury
Single Account, which is a unified structure of government bank accounts that
give a consolidated view of the government’s cash position.
It stated, “Over 10 per cent of Ministries, Departments and Agencies on
TSA and the government has already gone from an overdraft of N102bn to a credit
of N86 bn as at the end of 2013.
“As a result of these measures, the government’s fiscal deficit declined
from 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2010 to about 1.85 per cent in 2013 but is
projected to rise marginally to 1.9 per cent of GDP in 2014.
“Recurrent expenditure also reduced from 74.4 per cent in 2011, to 71.5
per cent in 2012 and further to 67.5 per cent in 2013, but it has risen back to
74 per cent in 2014 on the back of military and civilian pension arrears that
needed to be incorporated in the budget and also possible decline in oil
revenues.”