<\/p>\n
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.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, gave the hint on Tuesday at the ongoing \u2018National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria\u2019 held in Abuja.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was organised by the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The minister said the FG would also remove some items from the budget in order to reduce government\u2019s expenditure.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She said that the measure had become imperative because \u201cwe still see government\u2019s expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe 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.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again and also projects that are not necessary. \u201cMr 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n She also said government agencies with the same mandate would be merged.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chairman of the ICPC, Mr Bolaji Owasanoye, identified the cost of governance as a major \u201cdriver of corruption in Nigeria\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He said that \u201cpayroll padding\u201d and the \u201cphenomenon of ghost workers\u201d were clear cases of corruption and bloated personnel cost of the MDAs.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u2018National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[92,614,612,611,613,62],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-economy","tag-fg","tag-finance-minister","tag-mdas","tag-merge","tag-personnel-cost","tag-slash"],"yoast_head":"\n