Sunday, July 31, 2016
The Federal Government
has banned the procurement and distribution of conference bags, T-shirts and
other souvenirs at events such as Conferences and Seminars funded by Federal
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
This is contained in a
statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in Abuja by the Director of
Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Salisu Dambatta.
It said President
Buhari had approved the ban following recommendations by the Efficiency Unit.
It said the Chief of
Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari, had forwarded the directive to the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of the Civil Service of
the Federation and the Ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning,
for implementation.
According to the
statement, the ban was in continuation of the on-going cost-cutting and
efficiency drive in the utilisation of public funds by the present
administration.
The News Agency of
Nigeria recalls that President Buhari had set up the Efficiency Unit to review
all federal government’s overhead expenditure to reduce wastage, promote
efficiency and ensure quantifiable savings for the country.
The Minister of
Finance, Head of Service of the Federation, Accountant-General of the
Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation and Director, Budget Office of
the Federation are members of the Unit.
The Unit identified
procurement as the area to begin the execution of its mandate of reducing
overhead costs and wastage resources.
The Efficiency unit had
already recorded success in cutting government overhead cost in areas such as
travels, welfare, honorarium, sitting allowance, training, adverts and
publicity as well as refreshments.
It had gone a step
further to relocate some of federal government’s MDAs into recovered looted
properties as ways to reduce overhead cost.
“The directive which is
a recognition of the fact that in a period of lean financial resources
unnecessary expenditure on overheads such souvenirs are luxuries that the
government must eliminate.
“This will enable
release of funds for infrastructure and services such as health and education
that would have direct positive impact on the well being of the citizenry and
promote economic development. “The directive also contained specific guidelines that would reduce the cost of printing Invitation Cards, Programme of events, Brochures, Folders and Note Pads.
“Among the guidelines
are that they should be in black and white and limited to only one page and in
the case of Brochures they should be streamlined to contain only essential
information,” it said.
Also, the statement
said the printing of unnecessary publications and books of short shelf life
which have no real value to the concerned public institutions or the citizens
has also been banned. “MDAs were encouraged to save costs by uploading such publications on their websites which has the added benefit of wider visibility,” it said.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN