By David Agba
Abuja
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun yesterday hinted that the federal government would soon issue a new template on approved expenses for state-owned enterprises as efforts are being intensified to control the nation’s recurrent expenditure.
She gave the hint at a workshop on Cost Management on Overhead Expenditure for Permanent Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers of Departments and Agencies, in Abuja.
The workshop was organized by the Efficiency Unit, under the Federal Ministry of Finance.
The minister pointed out that the federal government needed to create headroom to be able to invest in capital projects. According to her, there is need to control recurrent expenditure, especially overheads, a drive which she said necessitated the creation of the Efficiency Unit by the Presidency in 2015.
She said government is determined to plug all loopholes which are currently encouraging revenue losses, explaining that in a bid to make state-owned enterprises productive and accountable, the Office of the Accountant-general of the Federation is working on a new template to determine what are allowed or disallowed expenses for state-owned enterprises.
She stated, “We will also be improving the level of disclosure, that is even when transactions are done. We noticed funds are really leaking through a loose framework. At the moment, the Accountant General of the Federation is working on a new template to determine what are allowable or unallowable expenses for state-owned enterprises.
“There will be a requirement for certain transactions to be disclosed in the audited financial statements of state-owned enterprises, so that there will be transparency around certain areas where clearly money is leaking.”
Giving the details of the new plan, Adeosun said: “The days when cost to ncome ratios of 99.9 percent was the norm are over. We have secured technical support from IMF with the state-owned enterprises template.”
The minister lamented a situation whereby state-owned enterprises from other countries come to bid for contracts in Nigeria, whereas some of the home-based ones are not that productive in terms of income generation.
She said: “We have observed that many state-owned enterprises in other countries actually come to Nigeria to bid for contracts. Many of the Chinese companies, are actually state owned, why will Nigeria’s state owned enterprises be cost centres? That is no longer acceptable and we are going to correct it. The results we are looking for, as the Head of Service has said, are an entrepreneurial and innovative public service that will serve Nigeria and form the foundation for our future and collective well being.”
