Government’s resolve to reduce cost of governance, commendable. By Obiechina Ngozi.

[FMINigeria]

 By Obiechina Ngozi.

Since the inception of democracy, Nigerians have always complained that the cost of governing the nation is on the high side.

The Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, during the presentation of her Ministry's score card for the last two years at the 2013 Ministerial platform, tried hard to disabuse the minds of the public. In doing so, she said that the present administration has really tried to reduce the cost of running the government by introducing different policies, which is yielding positive results.

Her words, "The last two years have witnessed some exciting policy initiatives in the economic sector which has made the economy strong and stable. This administration believes that putting aside some money for emergency is very important; hence the policy of saving – Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) – was created to catalyze co- investment from domestic and international investors into the Nigerian economy. The National Economic Council (NEC) at its meeting of November 25, 2010 approved the establishment of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and it has set aside US$1 billion as seed capital for the Authority"; she reported.

On how the SWF- policy of saving has been working, the Minister said, it has led to the reduction of circulation of much cash in the system- making the citizens to see the need to manage the little resources they have at hand."

However, many Nigerians can only understand reduction in the cost of administering their country only when there is a reduction in the number of public officials and their remunerations and other allowances. Perhaps, if there is efficiency in the use of public resources, their cynicism can be doused.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in further trying to explain more said, that "Government has put in place systems to increase efficiency in public financial management through introduction of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which enhances efficient personnel cost, planning and budgeting; as personnel cost is based on actual verified numbers and not on estimates."

To the Coordinator of the Nation's economy, "It was this system that made it possible for government to detect 46,821 ghost workers from the civil service, thereby saving N118bn for the nation. Work is ongoing to key in 321 MDAs not yet on the IPPIS, as only 215 Ministries have enrolled as at January 2013. When this is done more funds will be recovered; the Minister assured.

The Finance Minister also said that the Government introduced the Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS) which is aimed at improving the acquisition, allocation and utilization of public financial resources using automated and effective economic information systems.

Another policy the Minister said Government adopted in curtailing costs and managing fiscal policies was the Treasury Single Account (TSA) which is a unified structure of government bank accounts that gives a consolidated view of the cash position which has the participation of 93 MDAs. She said, presently this shows that government overdrawn position has dropped to N19bn in 2012 as against N102bn in 2011.

In summing up what the administration has been doing to manage the economy further, Okonjo-Iweala said "A new Petroleum Subsidy Payment has been put in place to help stem leakages and curb corruption in the system. N1trillion was audited in subsidy and a total of N232bn was found questionable while N14bn was recovered. Payment process of oil marketers has been tightened, and their number reduced to 32 as against 143."

With these pictures given by the Finance Minister, it can be seen that President Jonathan administration's resolve to reduce the cost of running government is indeed commendable, and with the implementation of all the policies introduced, it is believed that Nigeria is on the right track towards greater economic growth and egalitarian society.

Obiechina Ngozi, Senior Information Officer, wrote in from the National Press Center.

Via: Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria