The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, today said that the Federal Government saved N68 billion on personnel cost last year.
With the latest N68 billion savings, the aggregate savings by government on personnel cost since 2007 to date has risen to N288 billion.
The minister’s Special Adviser Media and Communications, Oluyinka Akintunde, quoted her as making the disclosure during her presentation of “Status Update on the Implementation of Federal Executive Council (FEC) Approved Projects” at the Federal Executive Council’s (FEC) meeting in Abuja.
She explained that the figures were funds that would have otherwise been unaccounted for which are now to be disbursed on capital projects.
While noting that the savings were made despite increased in personnel, including the employment of 10,000 by the Nigerian Police, the minister also hinted that 511 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were captured under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), with staff count of 607,843.
She explained: “As at 20th March, 2018 the number of MDAs on IPPIS Payroll is 469 with 316,158 Staff Count with gross salary of N43,979,383,997.78 and 42 Police Commands and Formations paid on IPPIS Platform in February, 2018 with Staff Count of 291,685 and gross salary of N22,276,669,257.21.
“Staff of Para-Military Agencies (Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Prison Service and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps) enrolled to date is 100,822 for which a trial payroll of N11,456,278,859.00 have been sent for review and update for April, 2018 payroll,” the minister added.
Adeosun noted that the introduction of the IPPIS had resulted in the reduction of ghost workers syndrome, enforcement of compliance with due process on employment of staff in MDAs, and prompt and timely payment of salaries and remittances of third parties payments.
Adeosun noted that the IPPIS had become an assured source of internally generated revenue through payee to states and Federal Government and called for adequate funding of the IPPIS project to achieve its lofty objectives.
The minister also made a strong case for a legislation to impose sanctions on non-compliance MDAs to achieve speedy and successful service delivery, adding that “there is need to kit IPPIS stakeholders to overcome challenges for effective and efficient service delivery at all times.”
