The Federal Government has said in order to reduce the high cost of governance in the country, it may cut salary of workers.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this on Tuesday at the policy dialogue on corruption and cost of governance in Nigeria, organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) in Abuja.
Ahmed said that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission to review the salaries of civil servants as well as the number of federal agencies in the country.
The Federal Government also intends to remove some unnecessary items from the national budget in order to cut cost of governance.
“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.
“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.
Ben Akabueze, the Director-General of the Budget Office, revealed that the cost of governance under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has risen sharply from N3.61 trillion in 2015 to N5.26 trillion in 2018 and N7.91 trillion in 2020.
He noted that this excluded the costs of government enterprises and transfers to the National Assembly, National Assembly, and the National Judicial Council.
Akabueze said, “There have been persistent calls for reduction of governance cost in Nigeria in view of the impact on governmental fiscal situation. The current system is clearly unsustainable; hence this national dialogue on corruption and the cost of governance in Nigeria is very timely.
“Cost of governance has generally been on the rise; actual MDA recurrent spending rose sharply from N3.61trn in 2015 to N5.26trn in 2018 and N7.91trn in 2020. This excludes the costs of government-owned enterprises and transfers to the National Assembly, National Assembly and the National Judicial Council.
“Recurrent spending accounted for more than 75 per cent of actual MDA expenditures between 2011 and 2020. Personnel costs accounted for 40 per cent of actual recurrent spending in 2020 while overhead is just three per cent.’’
