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Tony Ailemen, Abuja
The Federal Government says its Whistle Blower policy has so far led to the recovery N7.8 billion, $378 million and £27,800 stolen from public treasury.
So said Kemi Adeosun, minister of finance, at a briefing with State House correspondents on Wednesday, after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“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,” Adeosun said.
She announced that the Federal Government has collaborated with the government of the United Kingdom providing training on whistle blowing, on how Nigeria can institutionalise 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 institutionalise whistle blowing as a structure. It has a central part of fighting corruption, giving us valuable information. Basically, whistle blowing is here to stay.”
On the 2017 budget, she put the capital releases till date from 2017 at N1.248,310 trillion.
So far, Power, Works and Housing got N301.89 billion, Defence N151.2 billion, Agriculture N119.9 billion, Transport N127.9 billion and others combined, got N545.6 billion.
Adeosun revealed that the 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 FEC meeting was presided over by 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 increases in personnel, including the employment of 10,000 by the Nigeria Police Force.
“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,” she 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 the Federal Government.
The finance minister called for adequate funding of the IPPIS project to achieve its 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,” she recommended.
