FG will deliver on promises to Nigerians — AGF

The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Ahmed Idris, has assured of the Federal Government’s commitment to delivering on its promises to Nigerians.
Idris who stated this, Wednesday in Abuja, added that although the Muhammadu Buhari administration was facing a lot of challenges, it was committed to living up to its responsibilities.
“Nigerians have been made a lot of promises and I believe Mr President is aware and is passionate to deliver on those promises.
“Challenges are there, challenges to do with the economy, challenges to do with the revenue but gradually these challenges are being overcome.
“By the time we begin to see the benefits of some of these loans that the government has taken, of course projects and programmes as promised will begin to roll out.
“And I believe this will start particularly when the budget is finally sealed and approved.
“Nigerians are right to even look for all these because it is a right to all citizens and I believe expectations of Nigerians must be met.
“And we are ready and we will leave no stone unturned to make sure that government and Mr President have delivered on their promises and gradually we will see the benefits.’’
He pleaded with Nigerians to be patient stating that the economic policies of the administration were geared towards ensuring transparency and accountability in governance.
According to him, committees are established by the Ministry of Finance to ensure transparency in what comes to government by way of operating surplus from agencies that are supposed to generate revenue.
Idris said that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) was also working towards ensuring that all revenue accruable to the government was recovered especially in the current era of diversification from crude oil.
On the issue of ghost workers, he said that the ministry was working through the OAGF to weed them out.
“We are now going ahead to use Bank Verification Number (BVN) recently introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to clarify and to ascertain names of those benefitting salary from the Federal Government.
“Following that exercise, quite a number of names appeared that are receiving double salaries and although we are not an agency charged to prosecute, we are liaising and collaborating with those agencies.’’
He said that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was involved and that a committee was already set up by the Minister of Finance to help weed out ghost workers.
He said the committee was manned by very seasoned and experienced personnel and that it would submit those names to relevant government agencies for prosecution.
The AGF, however, said that the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), which is used to pay salaries was not absolutely 100 per cent corrupt free.
“There are issues and these issues because of the mechanisms we put in place are being identified and culprits are being apprehended.
“Right now some staff working with that department are in the custody of security agencies, being interrogated and I believe prosecution will take place.
“The most important thing is not about really apprehending people but mechanism that is being put in place to arrest further incursion into the system and we have done that,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the AGFalso disclosed that the Federal Government plans to begins payment of staff salaries by the 25th of every month, as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Idris said “this is going to be given a test, I believe, by this month’’.
The AGF also said that the government was working on a new arrangement, which, if approved, would ensure payment of the salaries before the monthly meeting of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).
According to him, usually, salaries are paid after the FAAC meeting, where revenue accruing to the federation’s account are shared between the federal, state and local governments.
“There is a standing instruction of Mr President to pay salary on or before 24 or 25 of every month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by that.
“We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can accommodate salary payments even before FAAC.
“This is going to be given a test I believe by this month.
“We will go to seek for necessary approval of our political masters to make sure that at least salary and other statutory payments are made even before FAAC.
“Because we can project how much they are and therefore we can prepare and hit the ground running to make them realisable and actualised.
“Even where we delay FAAC, we can still pay salary.’’
Idris dispelled the widely held belief that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy is responsible for the delay in the payment of salaries and attributed the situation to the crash in global oil prices, which has affected the inflow of income to the country.
“Nigeria is practically making about 30 to 40 per cent of what it used to make by way of revenue from oil and that has affected inflow generally.
“These inflows are what the federal, state and local governments receive to service the economy.
“It is when we receive these resources and sit at the end of the month for FAAC that the resources are shared among the three tiers of government.’’