The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the recent revelation of a N37bn saving from MDAs as a clear testament to the success of the silent civil service reforms embarked upon by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
This, it said, is because the amount could easily have been misappropriated by a small minority of unscrupulous public servants who had been milking public funds for years.
BMO said in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke, that it was incredible that N37bn could have been lost to alleged mistakes and non-compliance with an agreed template for the payment of promotion arrears.
“When President Buhari directed that N10bn be set aside monthly from May 2017 to offset backlog of promotion arrears, it was based on an outcry from civil servants over non-payment of arrears between 2011 and 2016.
“Not surprising, a mandate was given to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to set up an in-house committee to verify claims by MDAs, and even as the panel is still cross-checking the submissions, it discovered paddings which have been categorised as mistakes and non-compliance with agreed template.
“What is obvious from the process is that in spite of all efforts by the President, there is still a handful of civil servants who are bent on continuation of the status quo that defined the public service as a bastion of corrupt practices,” it said.
The group added that President Buhari’s silent reforms of the civil service would continue to block all loopholes for paddings, misapplications of funds as well as mistakes which were the hallmark of past administration.
BMO said: “We want to recall that less than a year ago, Presidential Spokesman Garba Shehu issued a statement titled ‘The Real Price of changing the Change’ in which he spoke about how some corrupt politicians and civil servants were hoping for a return of the old order when it was easy to illegally amass wealth at public expense.
“This is just one example of public fund that could have gone under the radar into private pockets but was nipped as a result of the new order put in place by a government that is desirous of ensuring public accountability.”
It acknowledged the delay in clearing the backlog of promotion arrears but appealed to civil servants that have yet to be paid to exercise some patience.
“As much as there is a delay in clearing the six-year backlog several months after the Presidential directive, the revelation of a saving of N37bn from over 200 MDAs that have been verified means that there could be other ‘mistakes’ in claims from government offices that have not been verified.
“So it would be ideal to appeal to affected public servants to be patient and allow the verification committee to conclude a job that has to be painstakingly done.
“Of the N55bn that was released, about N42bn has been paid based on verified claims, leaving an outstanding N13bn, while N35bn is yet to be released to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
“This means that the Buhari administration has made enough provisions to offset the backlog it inherited from past administrations.”
