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Caution Okonjo-Iweala, Okogu – TUC tells FG

By BusinessNews Staff on January 26, 2014

The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria has urged the Federal Government to immediately caution the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu, against feeding the public with false information on the issue of wages of civil servants.

A statement by the TUC on Thursday read in part, “We refer to reported claims by the duo that the civil service consumes 37 per cent of the recurrent expenditure in the country’s annual federal budget. Surely, this is overly speculative on the part of both federal officers.

“So also is their assertion that the total number of federal civil servants is about one million. Perhaps, the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office should publish the salaries and other emoluments of all civil servants, giving details of what each Ministry, Department and Agency spends as remuneration each month.”

The union said the number of federal civil servants was less than 100,000, while the rest of the figure touted by Okonjo-Iweala and Okogu were public servants in federal higher institutions of learning, the military, Police, fire service, Customs, Immigration, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and other agencies of the government.

It added, “Their miss-talk does achieve one good thing though; it accentuates the need for the inclusion of representatives of the organised labour in all committees, boards and other bodies set up by the government – something that we have repeatedly advocated for.

“It is evident that the ministry and the budget office will be prime beneficiaries of such a policy. If nothing else, our representatives in those bodies could counsel them on the distinctions between the civil service and the public service.”

[Punch]

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