L
LequteMan
Guest
Nigeria's Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, has stated that the Federal Government cannot sustain the N165bn monthly salary of federal civil servants. This represented 40 per cent of the total spending of government.
She said the figure was too high and the government was pursuing aggressive measures to detect and prosecute ghost workers and other saboteurs in the system.
“We spend 165 billion every month on salaries and when I came in there was no checking.
“Now, we have created a unit assigned with the sole responsibility of checking the salaries and catching those behind the over bloated salaries,’’ she said.
According to her, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the previous administration was faulty and sabotaged by the element benefitting from the salary fraud.
She complained that the Nigeria Police and other federal establishments were not captured in the system. She expressed shock that the Nigerian Railway Corporation which was not fully functioning still had 10,000 workers in its payroll serviced by government.
“The economy is not measured by how many private jet we have but how many jobs we create. People must be productive for the economy to grow," she said.
“We have been a consumer economy, but we want to be productive and stop buying everything from abroad. We have been borrowing to pay salaries for years and that has to stop because it is not sustainable.
“Last year, we spent N64 billion on travelling and only N90 billion on roads. Travelling does not grow the economy and this must also stop,’’ she said.
She spoke at a meeting with Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) hosted by Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed.
She said the figure was too high and the government was pursuing aggressive measures to detect and prosecute ghost workers and other saboteurs in the system.
“We spend 165 billion every month on salaries and when I came in there was no checking.
“Now, we have created a unit assigned with the sole responsibility of checking the salaries and catching those behind the over bloated salaries,’’ she said.
According to her, the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the previous administration was faulty and sabotaged by the element benefitting from the salary fraud.
She complained that the Nigeria Police and other federal establishments were not captured in the system. She expressed shock that the Nigerian Railway Corporation which was not fully functioning still had 10,000 workers in its payroll serviced by government.
“The economy is not measured by how many private jet we have but how many jobs we create. People must be productive for the economy to grow," she said.
“We have been a consumer economy, but we want to be productive and stop buying everything from abroad. We have been borrowing to pay salaries for years and that has to stop because it is not sustainable.
“Last year, we spent N64 billion on travelling and only N90 billion on roads. Travelling does not grow the economy and this must also stop,’’ she said.
She spoke at a meeting with Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) hosted by Information and Culture Minister, Lai Mohammed.
