If the personnel cost budget of N2.67tn proposed by Federal Government for next year is approved by the National Assembly, then the wage bill of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government will have increased by N556bn in three years from N2.11tn in 2018 to N2.67tn in 2022.

The amount was contained in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2020 to 2020.

An analysis of the document showed that the wage bill of government has been assuming an upward trajectory owing to number of personnel in the public sector.

The document showed that personnel cost rose by N170bn from N2.11tn in 2018 to N2.28tn in 2019.

Between 2019 and 2020, the wage bill of government is expected to increase by N386bn from N2.28tn to N2.67tn.

Further analysis showed that in 2021, the wage bill of government is expected to rise by N81bn from the 2020 amount of N2.67tn to N2.75tn, before hitting N2.83tn in 2022.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had during a consultation with stakeholders on the MTEF said the 2020 to 2022 fiscal years would be challenging, particularly with respect to revenue generation and rapid growth in personnel costs.

Ahmed attributed the growth in personnel cost to the creation of new ministries and appointment of additional ministers.

She, however, assured that the government was ready to take firm decisions.

To contain rising personnel cost, she said that any government staff not captured in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (by October 2019) would not be paid salaries.

The minister said from 2020, the budgets of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Government-Owned Enterprises would now be contained and published in the nation’s annual budget.

Federal Government had in June when it began the process for the preparation of the 2020 budget warned MDAs to avoid inflating their personnel budget.

The government also issued a warning to chief executives of all agencies of government against the introduction of ghost workers in the personnel payroll, adding that such act would not be condoned.

The warning is contained in the 2020 Personnel Budget Call Circular with reference BD/2000/EXP/S.651 was dated May 24, 2019.

Punch