Nigerian govt establishes ‘efficiency units’ to reduce cost of governance
The Nigerian Government has announced the establishment of an Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) to monitor its agencies and ensure all expenditures are necessary and represent the best possible value for money.
This is contained in a statement issued by the Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Finance, Marshall Gundu, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The E-Unit is domiciled at Federal Ministry of Finance and is expected to review all government overhead expenditure, to reduce wastage, promote efficiency and ensure quantifiable savings for the country.
Mr. Gundu said the E-Unit would work across all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to identify and eliminate wasteful spending, duplication and other inefficiencies.
It is also expected to identify best practices in procurement and financial management and share such knowledge with the MDAs to ensure its adoption.
“Findings of the Efficiency Unit will be formally communicated accordingly and will be enforced through establishment of expenditure guidelines, undertaking follow-up reviews and spot checks.
“Other measures that will ultimately checkmate wastage across all areas of Federal Government expenditure will also be adopted,’’ the statement said.
According to the statement, the development is based on the fact that presently, the nation’s recurrent expenditure completely dwarfs capital expenditure by a ratio of 84/16.
“This includes non-wage related overhead expenditure such as travel costs, entertainment, events, printing, IT consumables, stationery.
“As at September 2015, the entire capital expenditure was just N194 billion while overhead expenditure was N272 billion.
“This scenario is considered unsustainable and at variance with the current administrations resolve to reform the economy and reduce the cost of governance,’’ Mr. Gundu stated.
He stated that the committee would be chaired by the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, and other members would be drawn from both public and private sectors.
Other members of the committee include the Head of Service of the Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation and Director, Budget Office of the Federation.
A Director at the Debt Management Office, Patience Oniha, had been named the Project Leader of the unit.
Mr. Gundu said members of the Supervising Committee have agreed to donate their time without fees as their contributions to making government more efficient.
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