In view for the 2025 budget exercise, the State House Management and Heads of government agencies under its supervision held a one-day retreat on Saturday in Abuja.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, represented by Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, after declaring the meeting open, urged the Heads of Agencies to be guided by the extant provisions that establish their organisations.
The importance of adhering to the set objectives initiated by the State House management, particularly in institutionalizing e-governance to improve operations was emphasized by the Vice president.
The Vice President also commended the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Hon. Lateef Fagbemi, for participating in the retreat and for an insightful presentation titled ”Delineation of roles and functions between the management and the agency and its supervising entity: A prerequisite for good relationship and effective delivery of Mandate. ”
According to the Vice President, “
”The retreat is structured to define who is responsible for what, how we can help each other achieve our mandates, and some of us are meeting each other for the first time.It is necessary to define our roles and limits and avoid breaking financial, procurement, administrative thresholds’.
The Permanent Secretary also highlighted that with the recent approval of the new minimum wage by the President, the government will no longer tolerate massive recruitments into agencies without approval or waiver, as well as selective promotions.
According to the permanent secretary, ”We now have new public service rules that defines when to promote, who is due for promotion, mode of promotion, procedure and conduct of promotion examinations and strict adherence to public service rules,” he said.
According to the Permanent Secretary, the Retreat, the first of its kind under this administration, also deliberated on the need for strict enforcement of government policies and sanctions for defaulting agencies.
”The Retreat apprised CEOs of government agencies on types of appointments into the public service, criteria and qualifications for these appointments, procedures for procurement process, budget preparation, and the monitoring and evaluation of government policies ,” he added.
The agencies whose establishing Acts place them under the supervision of the State House include the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), Nigeria Agriculture and Land Development Agency (NALDA), Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President (OCEAP) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Others are Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), National Centre for the Coordination of Early Warning and Response Mechanism, National Council on Climate Change (NATCCC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) and the National Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC).
This discussion is contained in a press release issued by the State House, Abuja.
