SGF: In three years, we spent 60% of overhead expenditure on travels, stationery

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, says the federal government spent 60 per cent of its overhead expenditure on travels, maintenance, welfare and stationery in three years.

Speaking on Tuesday at the third national anti-corruption summit in Abuja, the SGF stated that it is no longer acceptable for the country’s resources to be expended on frivolities, fake projects and meaningless capital projects.

According to him, the federal government is working towards reducing the cost of governance and utilising its resources efficiently.

“As I welcome all of us to the Third National Anti-Corruption Summit, I want to sue this opportunity to commend all the Anti-Corruption Agencies for the progress being made in this very necessary campaign that would see Nigeria having more resources, which would have hitherto been unscrupulously diverted, to tackle our development challenges,” Mustapha said.

“In line with the theme of today’s Summit, I speak on the role of the Executive arm of government to lead, as it has been doing, the constant quest for improving cost of governance by ceaselessly reinventing itself. This is imperative because we are dealing with systemic corruption and this implies that corruption has permeated the fabric of society including governance thus the institutionalization of corrupt practices in the machinery of governance must be ruthlessly rooted out.

“Systemic corruption prevents government from maximizing its potential of providing good governance for the people with available little resources especially at this time of Covid-19 pandemic.

“Government is highly worried that about 60 per cent of Federal Government’s Overhead Expenditure in three years (2012 to 2014) was spent on travels, maintenance, local and international training, welfare, office stationery / consumables, honoraria etc. Recent data from the Budget Office indicates that “actual MDAs recurrent spending is still on the rise viz. from N3.61 trillion in 2015 to N5.26 trillion in 2018 and N7.91 trillion in 2020.

“​President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration, has, therefore, been unrelenting in making sure that our little resources will no longer be budgeted and/or used for frivolities, hidden in fake projects, unnecessary travel, wasteful overhead costs, meaningless capital projects and remuneration of ghost workers. We also remain focused on getting back our resources that have found their ways into the private pockets of those who fraudulently orchestrate the budget process for their selfish desires.”

The SGF added that the president’s administration has demonstrated its determination to fight corruption and improve governance no matter what it takes.