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The Minister of Information and Supervising Minister of Defence, Mr. Labaran Maku, has disclosed that the President Goodluck Jonathan led administration has recovered the sum of N118.9 billion from ghost workers since the beginning of the year.
The minister made the disclosure during a World Press conference held in Abuja, where he stated that about 46,821 ghost workers have so far been identified from 215 Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, with the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS.
Maku also disclosed that work is still on-going to bring in other 321 MDAs that are not yet on IPPIS.
“The purpose of this reform is to increase efficiency and public financing, personnel cost, planning and budgeting as personnel cost will be based on actual verified numbers and not estimates.
Also, government intends to eliminate ghost workers from its payroll and channel the money into capital projects.
“There are moral issues involved; government has discovered that people are frustrating the system with ghost workers. That is why we embarked on this reform and today, we’ve saved a lot of money through this reform process.
“The problem is that a lot of corruption in the system came from defective system we had in the past, it is that systemic and defective structures that have wasted a lot in the economy,” he said.
He alleged that the issue of security is being politcised by politicians rather than supporting Federal Government in the on-going effort to combat insurgency in the north-east.
”We politicise insecurity in the north. The earlier we wake up and understand it, the better for us. We are playing too much politics with insecurity in this country; that has become our culture. If we do not co-operate with the federal government, the worst for us, particularly in the northern part of the country. Let us keep politics aside and confront our common enemy because many Boko Haram members are not Nigerians.
“Let the media be more professional and stop being used as a platform to take us back.”
Explaining further, Maku said “The establishment of army unit in the north-east part of the country is aimed at tackling insurgency in the region once and for all and also to check the infiltration of their foreign allies,” he stated.
On the plan to ban importation of Tokunbo cars, Maku said the policy is not meant to punish Nigerians, but to grow the local car manufacturers and to create jobs and wealth in the economy.
“Instead of 177 million Nigerians depending on Tokumbo cars and exporting jobs to Japan, China and other car manufacturing nations, we felt that it is better that we bring in a system that will encourage local car manufacturers and make loan cheaper for them. We will use the new policy to generate jobs and increase our capacity,” he said.
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