Buhari presenting
the budget
President Muhammadu Buhari
Thursday, made good his threat to deal ruthlessly with top civil servants
who altered figures in the 2016 budget thereby making nonsense of his zero
budget plan.
No fewer than 184 top budget
officials were flushed out of budget duties and sent to establishments that
have little or nothing to do with budget, as a punishment for their roles in
padding this year’s fiscal document, now before the National Assembly.
A top official in the Budget office confirmed
that 22 top officers from the Budget Office of the Federation were affected in
the mass deployment. The rest were moved away from budget-related duties in
other Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.
Out of the 22 top officials
indicted in the budget office, four were directors on Level 17; six were deputy
directors, while 12 were Assistant directors.
As the affected officials were
moved from their posts in the Budget Office, 14 other directors said to have
been ‘tested’ have been redeployed to the same office with immediate effect.
The order to remove the tainted officials from
their previous posts to other duties was conveyed to the affected offices by
the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, according to finding by
Vanguard. All the affected officers, according to the directive, are to report
in their new locations on or before the close of work today.
When contacted, the Media
Adviser to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Mr. Akpadem James,
confirmed the development but declined to give further details.
While in Saudi Arabia last month,
President Buhari had threatened to punish all those who were involved in the
padding of the budget. Apart from removing the director of budget, he also
merged the budget office with the planning ministry.