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, 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.
Garba
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, 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 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, please
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,
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, he 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".
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