Mrs Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance, on Wednesday said that government would save N4.14 billion from the Efficiency Unit on travels yearly with appropriate streamlining of the procurement process.
Adeosun made the disclosure at the Efficiency Unit’s media round table held in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister was represented by Mrs Patience Oniha, Head of the Efficiency Unit.
She said that government would save N4.14 billion annually “if a price discount of five per cent was secured on average annual expenditure of N83 billion on travels’’.
Adeosun added that the N4.14 billion annually savings opportunity was on travel tickets.
The minister said that government needed to use its large purchasing power to negotiate favourable terms from suppliers and increase transparency through the introduction of price guidelines.
She said that the unit was inaugurated on Nov. 30, 2015 to eliminate waste and excesses in government’s expenditure.
She added that the unit was established against the urgent need to achieve a better cost structure for the government and derive maximum value for money.
Adeosun said that the unit had introduced measures such as shared services and streamlining of the procurement process to reduce wastage and enhance savings.
She said that the efficiency unit had reviewed the public procurement process in line with international best practices to make value for money.
Adeosun said that the unit would soon review work processes and practices to identify and eliminate areas of wastage, excess capacity and duplication.
“If procurement processes are streamlined, government would generate savings from elimination of wastages and excess capacity and duplication,’’ she said.
According to her, such savings can be channelled into priority projects to improve infrastructure, encourage domestic production, attract investors and create employment opportunities.
She said that the ministry was doing everything within its powers to strengthen internal control and ensure that compliance and enforcement was mandatory in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). (NAN)