Contrary to insinuations that the federal civil service is over-bloated, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has put the number of Nigeria’s bonafide workforce, at the federal level at 720,000.
The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Dasuki Arabi gave the figures while commenting on reforms initiated by the agency, at the 42nd session of the media briefing coordinated by the Presidential Media Team at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
Speaking on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), and the introduction of the Treasury Single Account, he said about 70,000 ghost workers have been eliminated from the payroll system, with N10 trillion saved through TSA administration of funds.
He said, “We have a one-shot opportunity to look at IPPIS and say, as of today, we have 720,000 public servants working for Nigeria. This is a great achievement which I think we need to encode and we need to get it celebrated by all of us.
“We’ve been able to reduce more than N220 billion wastage through wrong management of IPPIS on payroll by ministries departments and agencies of government. We have reduced the budget deficits and changed the budget composition. We have succeeded in getting the Treasury single account deployed in all ministries, departments and agencies of government.
“Challenges have come in that implementation at the initial stage, but we are overcoming that and government is able to save over N10 trillion over the years because whatever you’re generating now goes into a treasury single account that is managed by somebody else, not you. And the government, especially at the top is always able to see what has come into our treasury single account today and what has gone out of that.
“So planning has been simplified. Budgeting has been simplified. Our distribution and allocation of resources have been simplified and streamlined.
“Transparency has been improved. A lot of things are done even outside the office. But the most important thing is the ability given to central agencies, the office of Accountant General of the Federation, and the Ministry of Finance to see what is happening in all ministries, departments and agencies of government because of the Government’s Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) is not controlled by the agencies.
“It is controlled by the central agencies but every activity you are doing under GIFMIS somebody is watching you and is monitoring that activity. This is a great achievement for us and for all of you and for all Nigerians.
“There is better access to information on finances in this country. Whatever you do, somebody’s watching you and somebody can request and get that information. International rating agencies standards and co have more confidence in Nigeria now because they have access to information and data that they were not able to get before this time”.
