The recent workshop for the 36 state commissioners of finance organised by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) in London, the United Kingdom, has called to question the political will of the President Tinubu administration to enforce his cost-saving measures among its top officials.
The workshop, with the theme, ‘Public Financial Management and IPSAS Workshop for State Commissioners of Finance and Officials of OAGF,’ was held at the Hilton Kensington in London from March 4–9, 2024.
It is a widely known fact that public servants plan trips and trainings, both within and outside Nigeria, not because it will raise their competence and output but because of the pecuniary accruals in terms of allowances.
According to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), commissioners are entitled to $600 estacode for each night spent on a foreign trip. Then add the outrageous cost of flights and other expenses for the commissioners and estacodes for officials of the OAGF and others.
The explanation by the Accountant-General’s Office that the choice of the UK as the venue for the event was due to the residency of the facilitators in the country does not hold water. In fact, the apparent wiser, safer and cost-effective approach would have been to pay the facilitators to come to Nigeria instead of ferrying all that number of officials to London.
For one, holding the programme in Nigeria would have reduced the dollar pull on the Naira which has seen the value of the local currency do badly against the green back and other currencies. It would undeniably have boosted the local hospitality and tourism industry for the duration of the conference.
Instead, by holding it in London, the OAGF and the finance benefitted foreign firms to the detriment of Nigerian businesses.
We saw this trend during the last general election when some elements in the political class were shuttling from Nigeria and Europe just to have deliberations, in a show that left many in bewilderment at the mindless waste of money.
Of late also the present administration has been preaching patronage of local products as a way out of the present economic doldrums.
Owing to Nigeria’s parlous economic condition, one of the necessary adjustments that the President Bola Tinubu administration has been forced to make is try to cut wastage in governance. With dwindling accruals from the country’s major national income earner, oil, due to massive oil theft and illegal bunkering, among others, and extensive borrowing by the preceding administrations expected to shoot Nigeria’s debt profile to N107.38 trillion in 2024, the country has reached a point where she is servicing debts with most of its national income.
The World Bank estimated that in 2022, Nigeria serviced its debt with 96.3 percent of its overall national earnings.
The federal government proposes to spend over N8 trillion in the 2024 budget to service debt, a figure that is more than what it plans to pay workers’ salaries and pension obligations. According to the budget proposal for 2024, debt service and personnel cost alone will consume over 61 percent of the total budget.
These are distressing figures and it clearly shows a government that is facing financial stress in meeting its obligations to provide good governance to the longsuffering Nigerian more than two-thirds of whom live below the poverty line, according to the 2022 figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The high cost of governance has led to strident calls from Nigerians to cut wastages, due mainly to negligence and corruption.
The Tinubu administration has positively responded to such calls, making a number of policy declarations to promote prudent application of government resources.
President Tinubu had in January announced a reduction in the official presidential delegation for local and foreign trips by 60 per cent.
Recently also, the president approved the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye report which recommendation the scrapping and streamlining of government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) with the ultimate aim of reducing government spending.
And in the most recent cost-cutting move, the president ruled out foreign travels by ministers and other government officials for the next three months, unless it is of critical importance. In this case, the president’s approval must be sought.
Not a few Nigerian have commended the present administration’s cost-cutting declarations, albeit calling on it to match word with action.
However, old habits die hard and some government officials who benefit from such wastages of government resources will not let go without a fight.
As a newspaper, we hold that the decision of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to have the conference in a foreign country is a blatant abnegation of the prudent utilisation of government resources the present administration has been preaching, as well as the idea of patronising local products.
The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and those of state finance commissioners are critical to the financial administration of the government at federal and state levels. Hence, it is important that those at the helms there align themselves with the vision of the present administration in terms of prudent management of the country scarce resources.
Those who are not ready to do so should be shown the exit door.
The Tinubu administration must show political will in this matter; otherwise, such jamborees like the one held by the government finance chiefs in London will not stop.
