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Federal government said its Whistle Blower policy has rake in money stolen from public treasury in various currencies with. N7.8b, 378m USD and £27,800, so far recovered since government introduced the policy.
Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday, while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council, ( FEC) presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
” I also briefed on the number of tips we have had, the number of investigations we have dealt with, the types of monies that have been recovered through the whistleblower policy.
She announced that the federal government has collaborated with the United Kingdom government providing trainings on whistleblowing, on how Nigeria can institutionalize the policy, which she said ” has come to stay”
” One of the things it has achieved is prevention. When they get the tips, they use it to block avenues for leakage. We have had a significant number tips.
“So, we will be coming back to institutionalize whistleblowing as a structure. It has become central part of fighting corruption, giving us valuable information. Basically, whistleblowing is here to stay, giving us useful information”
On the 2017 budget releases, put the capital releases till date from 2017 at N1.248,310 trillion.
So far, Power, Works and Housing got N301.89 billion, defense 151.2 billion, Agriculture N119.9 bn, Transport N127.9 billion and other ares combined is N545.6 billion.
The Minister while giving briefing on programs of the Ministry revealed that Federal Government saved N68 billion on personnel cost in 2017.
This brings the aggregate savings by the Government on personnel cost since 2007 to date to N288 billion.
The Minister made this disclosure during her presentation of “Status Update on the Implementation of Federal Executive Council (FEC) Approved Projects” at the Council’s meeting.
The FEC meeting was presided over by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari.
The savings, Adeosun explained, were funds that would have otherwise gone unaccounted for which, she added, were now free for the Government to fund capital projects.
She said the savings were achieved despite increased in personnel, including the employment of 10,000 by the Nigerian Police.
“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,” Adeosun said.
She added 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.
She noted further that the IPPIS had become an assured source of internally generated revenue through payee to States and Federal Government.
The Finance Minister called for adequate funding of the IPPIS project to achieve it’s lofty objectives and to enable replacement of the obsolete infrastructure.
She also canvassed the need for a legislation to impose sanctions on non-compliance MDAs to achieve speedy and successful service delivery.
“There is need to kit IPPIS stakeholders to overcome challenges for effective and efficient service delivery at all times,” Adeosun recommended.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
