Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, says the Federal Government will review salaries of civil servants and other federal agencies as part of ways to reduce cost of governance amid dwindling revenue.
The minister said this at a dialogue on corruption and cost of governance in Nigeria, organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ahmed said FG has also directed ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to come together to trim the cost of governance.
She said the government intends to remove some unnecessary items from the budget in order to cut the cost of governance in the country.
“We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue. The nation’s budgets are filled every year with projects that are recycled over and over again and are also not necessary,” Ahmed said.
“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 payrolls in terms of stepping down on cost.”
She said plans are also underway to review the number of agencies by merging those with the same mandate.
Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, said high recurrent spending, allocated towards salaries and running costs, has accounted for more than 75 percent of the public budget every year since 2011.
He said this has constrained investment in capital projects meant to improve the people’s standard of living.
ICPC chairman, Bolaji Owasanoye, identified payroll padding, duplication of projects, the phenomenon of ghost workers, and abuse of recruitment as critical areas of concern in governance cost.
