Forensic Audit Of Workers Will Save Money – Reps Tell FG

By Oduyemi Odumade

The House of Representatives has urged the federal government to carry out a forensic audit of its staff to address the problem of ghost workers with a view to saving money and reduce the increasing wage bill.

The House also asked the government to embark on cost-cutting measures to reduce other non-debt recurrent expenditures in the nation’s budget.

This was sequel to a motion by a member from Lagos State, Mr Ademorin Kuye at plenary.

The Lawmaker disclosed that the Federal Government personnel expense, pensions and other non-debt recurrent expenditures has increased by 241% in 13 years from N2.4trillion in 2011 to N8,27trillion in 2023.

Mr Kuye stressed that the country’s revenue within the period received massive hits from debt servicing obligations, while the government have little or nothing left for recurrent expenditure and has resorted to borrowing.

He added that the country’s debt servicing obligations gulped 97 per cent of the total revenue of the N3.42 trillion generated in 2011 with the government expending N3.34 trillion on debt servicing.

This according to him meant that all Federal Government’s salaries, overhead and Capital Expenditure within the period was financed with loans and support from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He expressed concern that the Federal Government’s wage bill, pension obligations and other non-debt recurrent expenditures has continued to grow significantly, despite the marginal increases in revenue and apparent increases in debt servicing pressure.

Kuye observed that despite the present administration’s economic restructuring policies, revenues cannot continue to pay salaries and other recurrent expenditures when there are still humongous debt servicing obligations to be taken care of.

Contributing to the debate, a member from Katsina state Mr Sada Soli said the motion is an indictment on the National Assembly because it has failed to carry out due diligence on the annual budget as enshrined in the Constitution.

He said the parliament has not paid much attention to the personnel and over head cost of the government as contained in the annual budget during budget defence.

Soli said the leadership of the House should allow robust scrutiny of the overhead and personnel estimate in the 2024 budget that will soon be presented to the National Assembly by the president.

Edited By Grace Namiji