FG Saves 12 percent From MDA's wages

The Federal Government announces that it has been able to reduce her monthly wage bill across Ministries, Department and Agencies by 12 percent, that is N20 billion monthly and from its previous N165 billion to N145 billion.

The announcement was made by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mahmoud Isa-Dutse, when he spoke to press men, on Tuesday, in Abuja at a workshop on cost management organized for the Directors of MDAs by the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

He said this was achieved with assistance of presidential committee on audit of MDAs , a committee saddled with task of continuous auditing of MDAs salary and wage bill.

The Permanent secretary said the current administration is not only concerned about cutting cost of governance, but also getting value for the funds and redirecting growth to sectors in need of it.

" This workshop is a cost management workshop organized for the Directors from all the ministries at the Federal level. Basically, it centered on how we should manage government's funds better. As you all know, due to sharp decline in government revenue , we must manage our purse more efficiently . Though the revenue has gone down, expenditure has not gone down and this is creating fiscal pressure for government. What we are doing is to look at ways we can generate more savings through efficient utilization of funds while the savings realized through efficiency are channeled to infrastructures and social welfare spending"

Isa Dutse added that, " beyond efficient utilization of funds, we also need to look at the component of the expenditure to make sure spending aligns with priority areas to enable government get value for money. That is what this workshop is all about. It is to generate awareness among Directors in civil service". " We are all conscious of the problems and what we need to do to solve the problems", he said.

Mrs. Patience Oniha, Head of Efficiency Unit of Federal Ministry of Finance, said the unit had been able to save 15 billion Naira from specific sub-heads such as travels, sitting allowances, souvenirs and a few others since it's inception over a year ago.

She added that cost cut was a continuous process, and Efficiency Unit would also be assisted by presidential committee on audit of MDAs to reach its required goal.