President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that all his ministers should shun flying first class when travelling abroad on official business, this is part of the administration’s ongoing clampdown on government spending and waste control.
Upon his assumption of office in May last year, Buhari has prioritized the combating corruption, controlling government expenditure and eliminating waste the cornerstone of his priorities. Presidential entourages have been largely reduced as have the perks associated with being in government, while the president and vice president have taken 50 percent pay cuts.
In this regard, all top government officials including ministers, permanent secretaries, chairmen of federal government committees, as well as chairmen and chief executives of parastatals and agencies have been given directives to travel business class. Speaker to the finance minister (Kemi Adeosun), Festus Akanbi, said the new directive has been captured in a circular on the review of overhead expenses released by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
According to Akanbi, the development is one of the recommendations made by the Efficiency Unit which was set up by Mrs Adeosun, last year aimed at reducing overhead expenses. It was set up to engender transparency and reduce government’s large expenditure through procurement in the various ministries, departments and agencies of the federal government.
“The second recommendation is on the need to reduce the frequency of travels by ensuring that board and committee events such as meetings, workshops and conferences in Nigeria are held in locations where the institutions or persons participating in the event are domiciled. Such events should, for the most part, be held in Nigeria but where this is not possible, the prior approval of the secretary to the federal government should be secured.” Added Mr Akanbi .
It is estimated that travel expenditure will drop by about 20% if the provisions of the new circular are fully implemented. For instance, a 20% reduction in air travel expenditure, using the figure of N69.417bn incurred on travels in 2014 will result in a cost-cutting of N13.88bn.
