The Federal Government is considering releasing funds from its service-wide vote to clear the November salaries of the workers of 428 ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) of the federal civil service.
The Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Ben Akabueze, gave this indication at a meeting on Wednesday with members of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
Akabueze stated that the 428 MDAs will not be able to pay November salaries due to the implementation of the new minimum wage.
He, however, said the Federal Government is considering releasing funds from the service-wide vote to cater for the shortfall in the November salaries of civil servants.
The service-wide vote is a major component of the nation’s yearly budget where a lump sum of money is kept to tackle unforeseen expenditure both for recurrent and capital.
The vote is disbursed by the accountant-general of the federation based on the instructions of the minister of finance, budget and national planning.
In April 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the new minimum wage bill into law, approving N30,000 as the wages of workers.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Mathew Urhogide, decried the “continued underfunding” of the office of auditor-general of the federation by the executive arm of government while agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) were being adequately funded.
He said the low allocation of funds to the agency will affect its duty of ensuring accountability and transparency in the management of public funds.
“The proposed budget of N4.6 billion for the office in 2021 may not be adequate to audit N13 trillion in the 2021 budget proposal of the federal government of Nigeria,” he said.
Urhogide also said provisions for staff recruitment and promotion in the office of the auditor-general of the federation were not included in the 2021 budget.
Responding, Akabueze said the budget office would only appropriate funds to the office of auditor-general of the federation based on extant laws.
He added that since his appointment as budget office DG, there has been an improvement in the budget of the office of auditor-general of the federation.
[…] cleared to work, will be expected to look into the books of ministries, department and agencies (MDAs) in a measure to recreate work ethics that have been missing in the federal civil […]