FG worries over 70% of revenue spend on recurrent expenditure

The Federal Government has expressed worry over high recurrent expenditure, saying 70 per cent of the monthly revenue inflow into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) is being spent on it.

The Minister of Finance Mrs Zainab Ahmed gave the indication yesterday at a retreat on the roles of Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) in the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and its effect on

workers’ condition of service and government revenue in Abuja.

Represented at the event by Dr Armstrong Ume Takang, her special adviser, the minister said the high recurrent expenditure will not free the much-needed resources for infrastructure development and improving standard of living, adding that the ministry was working to reduce high wage bills, eliminate ghost workers and block leakages.

According to her, one veritable way to make this happen is sustained implementation of the IPPIS that was introduced in 2007.

“Available records from the federal ministry of finance through the activities of the activities of the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA) has revealed a saving of over N500 billion,” she said.

According to her, a substantial part of this amount she said was saved as a result of continuous verification of the Nominal Roll and Payrolls of MDAs. Also, direct savings from the yearly appropriations of MDAs on the IPPIS platform has grown to over N100 billion while 519 MDAs have been brought under the policy.