The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has sent a N11.4 billion 2016 budget proposal to the National Assembly for approval, using the designed template of the Ministry of Budget which leaves it with little room to determine appropriately its personnel cost.
“The Commission could not give a figure for its own personnel budget because “the 2016 personnel budget template designed by the Ministry of Budget and Planning only made provision for detailed nominal roll without estimate and as such, the Commission was not in a position to justify the Ministry’s proposed figure,” the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Ibrahim Magu told members of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Financial Crimes.
Magu however, told the Committee, that the Ministry of Budget and Planning fixed the 2016 personnel cost at N6,664,040,791.00 (Six Billion, Six Hundred and Sixty Four Million, Forty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Ninety One Naira) which represents a 6.5 per cent decrease or a differential of N463,275,563.00 (Four Hundred and Sixty Three Million, Two Hundred and Seventy Five Thousand, Five Hundred and Sixty Three Naira).
“It’s a figure which could hamper the work of the Commission especially because of a planned recruitment of additional 750 staff of different cadres in 2016,” he said.
The personnel cost for the agency’s 2015 budget, according to Magu, was N7,127,316,354.00 (Seven Billion, One Hundred and Twenty Seven Million, Three Hundred and Sixteen Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Four Naira) for a staff strength of 2,173.
Magu explained that the EFCC currently relied on seconded staff from the Nigeria Police Force, because “the EFCC is a young organisation and it is cheaper to have seconded staff right now because their salaries are still being paid by the Police, but the plan is for EFCC staff to take over gradually.”
“The EFCC currently pays about N200,000,000 (Two Hundred Million Naira) in rent per year because its offices are in different places and this poses challenges of space and security especially with regards to the safe keeping of official documents and proper human resource control,” Magu said.
