Shettima: Heads of Agencies Must Be Guided By Laws in Preparing 2025 Budget

*Declares open retreat for MDAs under state house supervision

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Vice-President Kashim Shettima, has charged Heads of Departments and Agencies under the supervision of the State House to be guided by extant laws as they prepare the 2025 budget of their organisations.
This formed part of preparations for the issuance of the call circular for the commencement of the 2025 budget exercise, as the State House Management and Heads of government agencies under its supervision held a one-day retreat at the weekend in Abuja.  

Declaring the retreat open, Shettima, represented by Deputy Chief of Staff, Senator Ibrahim Hadeija, urged the Heads of Agencies to be guided by the extant provisions that establish their organisations.
He emphasised the importance of adhering to the set objectives initiated by the State House management, particularly in institutionalising e-governance to improve operations.

The vice-president, who also commended the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice,  Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, for participating in the retreat, titled his presentation: ”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 Shettima, ”This a very important retreat to remind senior civil servants, new appointees and Heads of Agencies about 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 we summoned to come and answer questions that arose from the Auditor-General’s report.

”This underscores the importance of reminding ourselves of the procedural issues that have to complied with in governance and administration.”
In his overview of the retreat, State House Permanent Secretary, Olufunsho Adebiyi, explained that the retreat was designed to foster collaboration and create synergy in the operations of State and Agencies under its supervision.
He said: ”In order for us to drive the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, it has become necessary for us to synergise within the State House and all 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.”
The agencies whose establishing Acts placed them  under the supervision of the State House included 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 were 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).