The Federal Government has banned the
procurement and distribution of conference bags,
T-shirts and other souvenirs at events such as
Conferences and Seminars funded by Federal
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
This is contained in a statement made available to
newsmen on Sunday in Abuja by the Director of
Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Salisu
Dambatta.
It said President Buhari had approved the ban
following recommendations by the Efficiency Unit.
It said the Chief of Staff to the President, Alhaji
Abba Kyari, had forwarded the directive to the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and
the Ministers of Finance and Budget and National
Planning, for implementation.
According to the statement, the ban was in
continuation of the on-going cost-cutting and
efficiency drive in the utilisation of public funds
by the present administration.
It will be recalled that President Buhari had set up
the Efficiency Unit to review all federal
government’s overhead expenditure to reduce
wastage, promote efficiency and ensure
quantifiable savings for the country.
The Minister of Finance, Head of Service of the
Federation, Accountant-General of the Federation,
Auditor-General of the Federation and Director,
Budget Office of the Federation are members of
the Unit.
The Unit identified procurement as the area to
begin the execution of its mandate of reducing
overhead costs and wastage resources.
The Efficiency unit had already recorded success
in cutting government overhead cost in areas
such as travels, welfare, honorarium, sitting
allowance, training, adverts and publicity as well
as refreshments.
It had gone a step further to relocate some of
federal government’s MDAs into recovered looted
properties as ways to reduce overhead cost.
“The directive which is a recognition of the fact
that in a period of lean financial resources
unnecessary expenditure on overheads such
souvenirs are luxuries that the government must
eliminate.
“This will enable release of funds for infrastructure
and services such as health and education that
would have direct positive impact on the well
being of the citizenry and promote economic
development.
“The directive also contained specific guidelines
that would reduce the cost of printing Invitation
Cards, Programme of events, Brochures, Folders
and Note Pads.
“Among the guidelines are that they should be in
black and white and limited to only one page and
in the case of Brochures they should be
streamlined to contain only essential information,”
it said.
Also, the statement said the printing of
unnecessary publications and books of short shelf
life which have no real value to the concerned
public institutions or the citizens has also been
banned.
“MDAs were encouraged to save costs by
uploading such publications on their websites
which has the added benefit of wider visibility,” it
said.