Vice President Kashim Shettima has urged heads of agencies to be guided by t

he extant provisions that established their organisations in preparing their 2025 budget.

Mr Shettima, represented by Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, made the call during a retreat for the chief executives of the Ministries Department and Agencies under the supervision of the State House on Saturday.

The retreat was part of preparations for the issuance of the call circular for the commencement of the 2025 budget exercise.

He emphasised the importance of adhering to the set objectives initiated by the State House management, particularly in institutionalising e-governance to improve operations.

Shettima commended the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lattef Fagbemi, for participating in the retreat.

He also applauded Mr Fagbemi’s 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.”

Mr Shettima said the retreat was important as it reminded senior civil servants, new appointees and heads of agencies about the imperatives of the civil service regulations.

“These regulations can be quite tedious, and the permanent secretary, State House, was right when he said some of these issues will come back to his table. I remember when I was in the Senate Public Accounts Committee, I have seen some faces here that were summoned to answer questions that arose from the auditor-general’s report. This underscores the importance of reminding ourselves of the procedural issues that have to be complied with in governance and administration,” he said.

Earlier, Permanent Secretary, State House, Olufunsho Adebiyi, explained that the retreat was designed to foster collaboration and create synergy in the operations of State House and agencies under its supervision.

He said, “In order for us to drive the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it has become necessary for us to synergise within the State House and the agencies under its control. 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.’’

He highlighted the recent approval of the new minimum wage by the President.

He warned that the government would no longer tolerate massive recruitments into agencies without approval or waiver, as well as selective promotions.

“We now have new public service rules that define 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.

He said 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.

He added that the retreat apprised CEOs of government agencies on types of appointments into the public service, criteria and qualifications for these appointments.

It also focused on procedures for procurement process, budget preparation and the monitoring and evaluation of government policies.

The agencies whose establishing Acts place them under the supervision of the State House include the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Bureau for Public Procurement and Nigeria Agriculture and Land Development Agency.

Others are the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit among others.

(NAN)