The
Federal Government on Monday said it had so far identified 46,821 ghost
workers in 215 of its ministries, departments and agencies where it had
introduced the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System.
The IPPIS is a new innovation of the
government that is meant to enhance efficient personnel cost planning
and budgeting by making personnel cost to be based on actual verified
numbers and not estimates
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, confirmed the development during her presentation at the
2013 Ministerial Platform in Abuja.
The event provided an avenue for
ministers to present their mid-term stewardship to Nigerians about their
contributions to the transformation agenda of President Goodluck
Jonathan.
Okonjo-Iweala said as of January this
year, the IPPIS had 153,019 members of staff of 215 MDAs, adding that
work was currently ongoing to bring in the other 321 MDAs into the
system.
This, she said was part of the reform
measures aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in the
management of government resources.
The minister said, “The Integrated
Payroll and Personal Information System enhances efficient personnel
cost planning and budgeting, as personnel cost will be based on actual
verified numbers and not estimates.
“Two hundred and fifteen MDAs (153,019
staff) are on the IPPIS as of January 2013. Savings on payroll cost to
date is N118.9bn and work is ongoing to bring in other 321 MDAs not yet
on the IPPIS. About 46,821 ghost workers have also been identified.”
The minister also said the introduction
of the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System
in April 2012 had helped to boost the speedy execution of the budget.
She said, “The GIFMIS is aimed at
improving the acquisition, allocation, utilisation and conservation of
public financial resources, using automated and integrated, effective,
efficient and economic information systems.
“Fifty-eight per cent of the budget is
now executed through GIFMIS. This is expected to rise to 79 per cent by
end of the third quarter of 2013.”
On the Treasury Single Account, which is
a unified structure of government’s bank accounts that gives a
consolidated view of the cash position, Okonjo-Iweala explained that its
introduction had helped to reduce how government’s accounts were being
overdrawn.
“Ninety-three MDAs are currently on the
TSA. Government’s overdrawn position has dropped from N102bn in 2011 to
N19bn in 2012,” he said.
The minister also said the Federal Government had taken adequate measures to increase non-oil revenues.
For instance, she said through tax
enforcement mechanism, the government had recovered over N10.65bn as
outstanding tax liabilities.
She also said the modernisation of tax
administration and operation helped the government to register 227,140
new tax payers in 2012 alone.
Okonjo-Iweala also used the occasion to clarify what she called misconception about the country’s debt position.
She said that contrary to the widely
held opinion that Nigeria was becoming a highly indebted nation; the
country’s national debt was still low.
The minister explained that what the
government was doing was to reduce domestic borrowing and take advantage
of the interest-free loans from international financial organisations.
Giving a flow of the domestic borrowing, Okonjo-Iweala said N107bn was borrowed in 2006; N200bn in 2007 and N155bn in 2008.
PUNCH
No comments:
Post a Comment