I’ll sanction you, Buhari warns corrupt public servants

President Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to sanction Heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that fraudulently present new projects as ongoing projects in their budgets.

The President gave the warning while declaring open the 3rd National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in the Public Sector.

He also said the Federal Government would sanction those who brought in personnel into the public workforce by illegal recruitment, padded their payroll and retained ghost workers.

‘‘We reduced the cost of governance by maintaining our promise to complete abandoned or ongoing projects commenced by previous administrations and have ensured that MDAs do not put forward new capital projects at the expense of ongoing projects.”

‘‘Government has, however, noted from the activities of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that some MDAs have devised the fraudulent practice of presenting new projects as ongoing projects.

‘‘Necessary action and sanctions will continue against the heads of such errant MDAs. I am confident that ICPC will continue to maintain the vigilance required of her by the ICPC Act in this regard,’’ he said at the summit with the theme “Corruption and Cost of Governance: New Imperatives for Fiscal Transparency”.

He said the summit reminded all of the negative impacts of unnecessary cost of governance and offered an opportunity for critical stakeholders to offer suggestions on ways to further reduce the cost of governance and promote transparency and accountability in government expenditure.