FG will flush out ghost workers, pensioners ' Okonjo-Iweala

The coordinating minister for the economy andthe Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has reiterated the determination of the government to flush out ghost workers and pensioners from government's payroll.Okonjo-Iweala was speaking on restructuring the nation's finances at the Nigerian summit organised by the Economist Group in Abuja .The minister, who noted that the cost of governance was probably higher in Nigeria compared to the rest of the world, said part of government's reform agenda was to reduce the amount spent on recurrent expenditure which she said was about 74 per cent of the country's Gross Domestic Product.She added that part of the measures was to flush out ghost workers and pensioners from government's payroll.The minister, disclosing that there were many ghost workers who later graduate into ghost pensioners in government's payroll, said the biometric data capturing exercise which the government embarked upon was designed to identify ghost workers and pensioners.Though she admitted that reducing government's recurrent expenditure might be a painful exercise, the minister stated that the economy would benefit from the reduction when the recurrent expenditure is eventually reduced to 70 per cent of the GDP.
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