‘428 federal agencies won’t be able to pay November salaries’
By Tunde Opalana
Director-General of the Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, on Tuesday disclosed that about 428 Federal Government agencies will not be able to pay staff salaries by end of this month (November).
As a way out, he said that the government has to fund payment of salaries of the affected agencies from the service wide vote for the month of November.
Akabueze who appeared before Senate Committee on Public Account said the financial situation of the agencies was caused by the implementation of the new minimum wage.
The Director General said “428 agencies will not be able to pay salary by the end of November; we take from Service wide vote to take care of the shortfall in workers salaries”.
Speaking earlier, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Mathew Urhoghide blamed the Executive for deliberately underfunding the Office of Auditor General of the Federation.
He expressed worries on how an agency that is meant to fight institutional corruption can be cash-starved by the Executive while the other agencies like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) are properly funded.
Urhoghide said “the continued underfunding of the Office of Auditor General of the Federation, which is constitutionall charged with responsibility of ensuring transparency. accountability and probity in governance.
“Therefore the proposed budget of N4.6 billion may not be adequate for the audit of the sum of N13 trillion in the year 2021 being total budget proposal of the Federal government of Nigeria.
“The office of the Auditor General for the federation is in need of replacing 247 retired staff which has not been provided for in the budget proposal.
“The promotion and annual increment of staff are also not factored into the year 2021 budget.
“There is need to digitalzed and automate the system of the specialized Audit which was also was proposed for in the year 2021 budget proposal for the office.
“It is an irony that while the office which is constitutionally established to ensure accountability and transparency in the management of public funds of the federation is having a reduced allocation while similar agencies established to achieve a fraction of this objective are well funded through incremental budgetary allocations.”
Reacting to issue of under- funding of the Office of Auditor General of Federation, Akabueze explained to the lawmakers that he budget office will only appropriate fund to the Office of Auditor General of Federation based on the extant laws.
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He said since his emergence as the Director General of Budget office there has been an improvement in the budget of Office of Auditor General of the Federation.
He said when it comes to capital budget the budget office is guided by the approved budget for those agencies.
He said the government could give any approval for the requirement in 2020 due to Covid-19 adding that it is illogical for government to recruitng during Covid-19.
He said the sectors that did not shut down recruitment during the Covid-19 were health and security sector.
