FG will merge MDAs, slash personnel cost, says finance minister

The Federal Government is set to merge some of its ministries, departments and agencies and cut personnel cost as part of measures to reduce cost of governance.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, gave the hint on Tuesday at the ongoing ‘National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria’ held in Abuja.

It was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC).

The minister said the FG would also remove some items from the budget in order to reduce government’s expenditure.

She said that the measure had become imperative because “we still see government’s expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.

“We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditure; expenditure that we can do without.

“Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary. “Mr President has directed that the salaries committee that I chair, work together with the Head of Service and other members of the committee to review the government payroll in terms of stepping down on cost.”

She also said government agencies with the same mandate would be merged.

The Steve Oronsaye Committee on restructuring of government MDAs submitted its report many years ago but had not been implemented due to lack of political will.

Chairman of the ICPC, Mr Bolaji Owasanoye, identified the cost of governance as a major “driver of corruption in Nigeria”.

He said that “payroll padding” and the “phenomenon  of ghost workers” were clear cases of  corruption and bloated personnel cost of the MDAs.