To cut the high cost of travelling by public officials, the Federal Government on Wednesday barred its top personnel from making officials trips on first class air tickets. Henceforth, travels with Business Class tickets would be restricted to only ministers, permanent secretaries, chairmen of Federal Government committees as well as chairmen and chief executives of parastatals and agencies. This was part of the recommendations by the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance to cut travel expenditure by about 20 per cent.
The unit said the new arrangement would reduce air travels expenditure by public officials by about N13.88 billion this year, using the N69.417 billion figure incurred on travels in 2014. The savings, government explained, would be used for investments in capital projects, such as roads, power, railways and public health facilities. Other overhead expenditures reviewed by the unit included those on refreshments and meals, honorarium and sitting allowances as well as advertising and publicity.
The Efficiency Unit was set up the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun to engender transparency in government expenditure, while reducing the large expenditure through procurement in the various government MDAs. Read more on this story here.