Staff Salaries Should Be Paid By The 25th Of Every Month – Buhari

The Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris, says the Federal Government plans to begin payment of staff salaries by the 25th of every month, as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Idris, who disclosed this in an interview with theNews Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday, said “this is going to be given a test, I believe, by this month”.

The AGF also said that the government was working on a new arrangement, which, if approved, would ensure payment of the salaries before the monthly meeting of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

According to him, usually, salaries are paid after the FAAC meeting, where revenue accruing to the federation’s account are shared between the federal, state and local governments.

There is a standing instruction of Mr President to pay salary on or before 24th or 25th of every month and we will try as much as possible to comply and to abide by that. We are taking a step further to make a provision whereby we can accommodate salary payments even before FAAC.

This is going to be given a test I believe by this month. We will go to seek for necessary approval of our political masters to make sure that at least salary and other statutory payments are made even before FAAC. Because we can project how much they are and therefore we can prepare and hit the ground running to make them realisable and actualised. Even where we delay FAAC, we can still pay salary.

Idris dispelled the widely held belief that theTreasury Single Account (TSA) policy is responsible for the delay in the payment of salaries and attributed the situation to the crash in global oil prices, which has affected the inflow of income to the country.

“Nigeria is practically making about 30 to 40 per cent of what it used to make by way of revenue from oil and that has affected inflow generally. These inflows are what the federal, state and local governments receive to service the economy. It is when we receive these resources and sit at the end of the month for FAAC that the resources are shared among the three tiers of government.”

Citing the benefits of TSA, Idris said that more than N2.7 trillion had been realised under a single account domiciled at the Central Bank of Nigeria.

He also said that the cost of borrowing by government agencies had been reduced substantially and that the economy was already a beneficiary of the policy.

“The monies are stimulating the economy in a way that delivery of social goods, services and efficiency in government expenditure are being achieved. So I believe that they are already serving the purpose for which they are meant and they are within the economy.”

He said he was optimistic having seen the benefits of the TSA policy to the Federal Government, states governments would key into it.

NAN