Addressing a forum of the organised private sector and Civil Society Organisations in Abuja on Tuesday, to deliberate on issues that will guide the preparation of the 2013 Budget, Dr Iweala said that the federal government is presently spending huge funds in the payment of personnel.
According to the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr Bright Okogu, the wage bill of the public sector, quadrupled from N443 billion to N1.659trillion between 2009-2012.
A situation which he says is not healthy for any nation craving for transformation.
Dr Okonjo-Iweala called for the reduction of Ministries, Departments and Agencies as stated in the Stephen Orasanye report, to check leakages needed to grow other sectors of the economy.
Further speaking, Dr Okogu also revealed that the share of personnel cost as percentage of aggregate expenditure increased from 27 per cent of the total federal government spending to 34 per cent in 2012.
While these government officials are canvassing a cut on spending to meet up with the challenges affecting the country, members of the private sector, led by the president, National Association of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, Garba Gusau, advised that funds saved from such leakages be channelled into activities that would grow the businesses of entrepreneurs thereby creating jobs for the unemployed.
A similar recommendation was earlier made in the year by the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies in an 800 paged report which recommended the reduction of the nation's Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) which are 541 in number, to 163.
The federal government was advised to scrap the nation's anti-graft graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) and 375 other agencies citing inefficiency and replication of duties at a huge cost on the nation's purse. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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ReplyDeleteGEJ should then reduce ministers and special advisers allowance with that of senators and house of rep who to me are doing but only marking time.
ReplyDeleteI agree with second writer. Let me add that the problem is not with the high wage bill but with the distribution of wages and allowances. Ministers, special advisers, permanent Secretaries, members of the national assembly, Directors General, two-star generals in the military etc take home a minimum of three million naira monthly legitimately in salaries and allowances. This group of people is relatively very small compared to those who earn five hundred thousand naira and below. The problem with these high gov't income earners is that they have a spending habit that does not stimulate our economy - children school abroad, most of their consumables including food are imported, they spend holidays abroad and so on. As such a large chunk of the 1.6 trillion naira salary bill goes to building economies outside Nigeria. If a large proportion of this amount is spend within the country, gov't will earn more revenue and spend even more on salaries. So creating unemployment by closing down some MDGs as recommended by the Orasanya Panel and Dr Iweala, to me, is not a viable solution but by carefully re-engineering the salary structure of gov't workers in Nigeria, a more sustainable panacea would be achieved.
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