Joseph Inokotong, Abuja
The Presidential Initiative for Continuous Audit (PICA) has disclosed that the Federal Government has saved over N500 billion plugging leakages and wastages in its Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).
The disclosure was made by the Permanent Secretary, Special Duties, Federal Ministry of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Dikwa, who also heads PICA.
Dr. Dikwa said this when he received in his office the
Alumni of National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Abuja Chapter.
Dr. Dikwa told the visiting Alumni that most of the achievements were recorded under his stewardship in PICA, a development he attributed to the experience he garnered from NIPSS.
He said “if you recall, over the last four years, this administration has put in place policies, and I am part of the financial policies put in place at the Ministry of Finance.
“I headed most of the reforms at the Ministry of Finance for the past four years. There are tangible results we have got over the years.
“One of the fundamental achievements was saving the government over N500 billion from leakages and wastages under my leadership at PICA.
“If the initiative was not in place, this amount of money we are talking about would have been spent by MDAs. It was because of this initiative that was put in place that we were able to save that money from treasury looters”.
He reiterated that the primary focus of PICA was to put systems and frameworks in place over finance and spending of government revenue, noting that the goal is to maximise the utilisation of resources through continuous assurance to ensure that requirements for improved efficiency, effectiveness and accountability are met.
According to the Permanent Secretary, “we have also put in place so many other measures like the Whistle-blowing Policy.
“The Whistle-blowing Policy was initiated under my chairmanship in PICA. We succeeded not only in recoveries, but stopped people from doing the wrong things as far as the government circle is concern.
“When we came up with the policy, an average of 11, 000 tips were received on a monthly basis, but now, we hardly receive 20 to 30 tips simply because people have reduced the wrong doing in government.