The Federal government payroll has been rid of 50,000 ghost
workers, saving the country a huge amount of N200 billion. The amount N13
billion has been taken off the payroll monthly from February to December this
year.
Speaking with State House correspondents at an interactive
meeting to mark the end the year, the Senior Special Assistant to the President
on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu announced that 11 persons championing the
syndicate of ghost workers have been handed over to the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC.
"The flagship program of the Muhammadu Buhari
administration to rid the system of fraud and instill good governance is on
course. Through a notable initiative, the Efficiency Unit of the Federal
Ministry of Finance, the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of
the salaries and wages of government departments.
"When the the Committee was constituted in February
2016, Federal government monthly salary bill was N151 billion excluding
pensions. Now the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions.
Which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13
billion. That is from February 2016 to date," he said.
The Presidential spokesman added that the "the pension
bill was 15.5bn monthly as at February. Now it is down to N14.4 billion, which
means average monthly saving is made of about N1.1 billion."
He explained that the total number of ghost workers so far
removed from the payroll is about 50,000 and that 11 persons championing the
syndicate of the ghost workers have been referred to EFCC with some of them
already undergoing trial.
Speaking on the welfare of the recently-released 21 Chibok
Girls, Malam Garba said they are being treated as adoptees of the Federal
Government but revealed that there is a lot of local and international interest
in the future plans of the girls.
"A black American billionaire, Mr. Robert Smith who is
currently sponsoring the education of 24 girls from Chibok, among them the
first set set of escapees from Boko Haram at the American University of
Nigeria, Yola has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations
and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be
eventually set free. The Murtala Mohammed Foundation in the country is equally
interested," according to the the Presidential spokesman.
Responding to complaints by some of the parents of the 21
Chibok Girls that they did not have enough room for interaction with their
daughters brought home for Christmas by the Department of State Services,DSS
the Senior Special Assistant to the President admitted that there were some
hitches arising from a lack of understanding of the objective of the trip on
the part of some security operatives but that following the receipt of this
complaint, a directive has been given from the headquarters for the access by
the parents to be eased. "If the situation persists, pls let us know so
that the higher authorities will make a further intercession," he assured.
Addressing an issue of interest to a lot of the members of
the governing party, the All Progressives Congress, APC concerning appointments
into boards, Malam Garba assured that the process will be be fully back on
track at the beginning of the new year.
" You know that the reconstitution began methodically,
from sector by sector. You should expect that to resume at the beginning of the
new year. The President has given directions on what to do," according to
him.
On the agricultural programs of the administration, Malam
Garba said that the President's persistent calls for a return to farming is
yielding good results. "The talk about agriculture has driven people to
the farm. This year, there is a huge boom in the rural economy. We have
witnessed an excellent harvest. Farmers are getting value for their output.
What has encouraged farmers the more is the increasing availability of extension
services. New farming techniques are helping farmers to do their occupation
better. The readiness of off takers to buy the produce is also a major boost.
"When you put all these together with the systematic
move to curb importation as a boost local production through the restriction of
the available foreign exchange to critically important sectors of the economy,
you have favorable environment for the diversification of the economy.
" As we speak, several of the country's major
manufacturing industries are actively backward-integrating- Nestle, Unilever,
the breweries are looking what we have as local materials, changing their
formulations to maintain production levels and keep their share of the market.
Manufacturers who are hooked on import of raw materials are advised to
re-strategize and take full advantage of local raw materials. The future
belongs to those who employ the use of local raw materials," concluded the
spokesman.
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