FG saves N200bn from 50,000 ghost workers in 2016

By Abdullahi M. Gulloma
Abuja

The federal government has detected 50,000 ghost workers from its payroll and subsequently saved about N200 billion, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said yesterday.
Shehu, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the 11-man syndicates behind the ghost workers scam were handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He said detection of the ghost workers has made it possible for the federal government to save N13 billion monthly from February to December this year.
He said government’s monthly wage bill was brought down from N151 billion excluding pensions in February to N138 billion.

“The flagship programme of the Muhammadu Buhari administration to rid the system of fraud and instil good governance is on course. Through a notable initiative, the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance, the government has embarked on the continuous auditing of the salaries and wages of government departments.
“When the committee was constituted in February 2016, federal government’s monthly salary bill was N151 billion, excluding pensions. Now, the monthly salary warrant is N138 billion, excluding pensions, which means that the government is making a monthly saving of about N13 billion. That is from February 2016 to date,” he said.
He said the pension bill which was N15.5 billion monthly as at February, was now brought down to N14.4 billion, making it possible to save an average of about N1.1 billion monthly.

On the welfare of the recently-released 21 Chibok Girls, Shehu said the girls were being treated as adoptees of the federal government in collaboration with some local and international groups.
“A black American billionaire, Mr. Robert Smith, who is currently sponsoring the education of 24 girls from Chibok, among them the first set of escapees from Boko Haram at the American University of Nigeria, Yola, has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free. The Murtala Mohammed Foundation in the country is equally interested,” he said.
On the agricultural programmes of the present administration, Shehu said the President’s persistent calls for a return to farming, is yielding good results.
He said: “The talk about agriculture has driven people to the farm. This year, there is a huge boom in the rural economy. We have witnessed an excellent harvest. Farmers are getting value for their output. What has encouraged farmers the more is the increasing availability of extension services.

“New farming techniques are helping farmers to do their occupation better. The readiness of off takers to buy the produce is also a major boost. When you put all these together with the systematic move to curb importation as a boost local production through the restriction of the available foreign exchange to critically important sectors of the economy, you have favourable environment for the diversification of the economy.
“As we speak, several of the country’s major manufacturing industries are actively backward-integrating- Nestle, Unilever, the breweries are looking at what we have as local materials, changing their formulations to maintain production levels and keep their share of the market. Manufacturers who are hooked on import of raw materials are advised to re-strategize and take full advantage of local raw materials. The future belongs to those who employ the use of local raw materials.”