FEC endorses auditing of staff of MDAs,

. N 2.29 billion saved from first phase

The Federal Executive Council, (FEC) at its sitting yesterday in Abuja gave its nod to the Presidential Initiative on continuous auditing of staff of ministries, departments and agencies of government, (MDAs) with a view to cutting down drastically the cost of running the government.

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, with her Information and Culture counterpart, Lai Mohammed, briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, noted that the action was in consonance with the policy objectives as outlined by President Muhammadu Buhari during his budget presentation to the National Assembly last year.

According to Adeosun, FEC approved the setting up of this initiative effectively, using an executive order to create internal audit to enable us continue this work and to extend it to everywhere that federal money is being spent or received so that we can have better oversight.

She recalled that during the presentation of the budget, the President had indicated that the government would introduce a continuous audit process, particularly of payroll, noting that work has resulted in the elimination of about 23,000 fraudulent recipients of federal salary and in financial terms, the figure had led to the reduction of the government’s wage bill by N 2. 29 billion on monthly basis, noting that work was still on going on the matter.