Budget Office Defends PFIPC Budget, Says Council Originated Under Buhari

the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), which the Presidency recently disowned and is now under investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC)

Tanimu Yakubu, said the body had its institutional origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council PEAC was inaugurated by Buhari on October 9, 2019, adding that by the time preparations for the 2026 budget began, relevant government institutions had already issued official instruments relating to the body.

PEAC/PFIPC did not enter the 2026 Budget merely because it asked for funds. The Council had its origin in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari on October 9, 2019.

the time preparation of the 2026 Budget began, official instruments had already been issued by the institutions charged with those functions. The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved an authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver.

The applicable public-service salary structure also existed. These instruments did not come from the Budget Office It did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments and did what the law required of it: it measured their fiscal effec,

Massive Budget Cut: Personnel Allocation Falls to ₦802.9 Million

The Budget Office chief disclosed that the council initially submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3.85 billion for the 2026 fiscal year.

He said the office rejected that figure and independently recalculated the personnel requirement based on the authorised staffing structure, recruitment waiver and approved public-service salary framework.

According to him, the exercise reduced the proposed personnel cost to ₦802.98 million.

“Council later submitted a personnel estimate of ₦3,850,935,000.00. That estimate did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office disregarded it and made an independent calculation using only the authorised establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the extant costing methodology.

He added that after assent, another condition remained outstanding because the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing and remuneration structure complied with the approved public-service framework.

“The Budget Office could calculate the cost. It could not open the gate. There was therefore no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrollment. There was no salary payment,” he added.

The Budget Office DG said the ₦802.98 million personnel provision represented 61.63 per cent of the council’s total appropriation of ₦1.303 billion.

He dismissed suggestions that the entire personnel allocation could have been handed directly to the body as a lump sum.

“The personnel provision was ₦802,978,783.00. It represented 61.63 per cent of the total appropriation of ₦1,302,978,783.00. It has sometimes been described as though the Council could have received the whole amount and spent it at will. That description is false,

that personnel appropriations are normally paid monthly to verified employees through the Federal Government payroll system rather than transferred wholesale to an agency.