As part of the effort to cut costs by the present administration, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, OSGF, has said Ministers and permanent secretaries will no longer travel with first class tickets.
Others that would no longer benefit from the first class are chairmen of federal government committees, as well as chairmen and chief executives of parastatals and agencies.
A statement from the Efficiency Unit of the Federal Ministry of Finance made available on Wednesday, April 6, said all the affected officials would now be restricted to the business class for their local and international travels as against what obtained in the past, where some government officials who should have been on business class, instead travelled first class, while many others travelled business class instead of the economy ticket.
The Efficiency Unit, which is the initiative of the current Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, set up to engender transparency and reduce government’s large expenditure in its negotiation for discounts with local and international airlines, also recommended other measures to the OSGF toward reducing government’s huge expenditure on travels.
“In line with the present administration’s commitment to reform public expenditure, the OSGF accepted the recommendations in full and has accordingly issued a circular recently to effect the changes.
“The buy-in and prompt reaction of the OSGF is an attestation of the common resolve by government to its change mantra and the spirit of collaboration among government institutions and officials,” the circular said.
It is estimated that travel expenditure will drop by about 20% if the provisions of the new circular issued by the OSGF are fully implemented.
A 20% reduction in air travel expenditure, using the figure of N69.417 billion incurred on travels in 2014 will result in a cost-cutting of over N13 billion.
