The Federal Government has banned the procurement and distribution of<\/p>\n
conference bags, T-shirts and other souvenirs at events such as
\nConferences and Seminars funded by Federal Ministries, Departments and
\nAgencies (MDAs).<\/p>\n
This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen on Sunday in
\nAbuja by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr
\nSalisu Dambatta.<\/p>\n
It said President Buhari had approved the ban following recommendations by
\nthe Efficiency Unit.<\/p>\n
It said the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji Abba Kyari, had
\nforwarded the directive to the Secretary to the Government of the
\nFederation, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the
\nMinisters of Finance and Budget and National Planning, for implementation.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, the ban was in continuation of the on-going
\ncost-cutting and efficiency drive in the utilisation of public funds by
\nthe present administration.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that President Buhari had set up the
\nEfficiency Unit to review all federal government’s overhead expenditure to
\nreduce wastage, promote efficiency and ensure quantifiable savings for the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
The Minister of Finance, Head of Service of the Federation,
\nAccountant-General of the Federation, Auditor-General of the Federation
\nand Director, Budget Office of the Federation are members of the Unit.<\/p>\n
The Unit identified procurement as the area to begin the execution of its
\nmandate of reducing overhead costs and wastage resources.<\/p>\n
The Efficiency unit had already recorded success in cutting government
\noverhead cost in areas such as travels, welfare, honorarium, sitting
\nallowance, training, adverts and publicity as well as refreshments.<\/p>\n
It had gone a step further to relocate some of federal government’s MDAs
\ninto recovered looted properties as ways to reduce overhead cost.<\/p>\n
“The directive which is a recognition of the fact that in a period of lean
\nfinancial resources unnecessary expenditure on overheads such souvenirs
\nare luxuries that the government must eliminate.<\/p>\n
“This will enable release of funds for infrastructure and services such as
\nhealth and education that would have direct positive impact on the well
\nbeing of the citizenry and promote economic development.<\/p>\n
“The directive also contained specific guidelines that would reduce the
\ncost of printing Invitation Cards, Programme of events, Brochures, Folders
\nand Note Pads.<\/p>\n
“Among the guidelines are that they should be in black and white and
\nlimited to only one page and in the case of Brochures they should be
\nstreamlined to contain only essential information,” it said.<\/p>\n
Also, the statement said the printing of unnecessary publications and
\nbooks of short shelf life which have no real value to the concerned public
\ninstitutions or the citizens has also been banned.<\/p>\n
“MDAs were encouraged to save costs by uploading such publications on
\ntheir websites which has the added benefit of wider visibility,” it said.
\n(NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n