A decade after, the Federal Government appears set for full implementation of Stephen Oronsaye report on scrapping of some government agencies and merger of some others to reduce the cost of governance in the country.
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has accordingly inaugurated two sub-committees to review the Main Report and White paper on restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions and review new agencies created after the submission of the Oronsaye report from 2014 to date.
The two committees were given 6 weeks within which to conclude their work and submit reports to the Federal Government.
Boss Mustapha noted that the inability to implement the report of the Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions is costing government highly.
The SGF, who was represented by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, lamented that this cost grows higher for every delay that the implementation suffers.
He noted that this was further worsened by the fact that immediately after the report was released, parastatals and agencies billed for mergers or scrapping began developing means of further entrenching themselves as a major expenditure source to the government, adding thatnew agencies were also created to compound the situation.
He specifically noted the inauguration of the sub-committees was designed to finalise what most Nigerians might have considered a seemingly intractable challenge in Nigeria’s drive to evolve a sustainable governance architecture for effective service delivery by the Public Service.
Recall that the Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies was constituted August 18, 2011, and submitted its report on April 16, 2012.
The report recommended that of the 541 Statutory and Non-Statutory Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions, 263 statutory agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 agencies should be abolished, 52 agencies should be merged, and 14 should revert back to Departments in Ministries.
Subsequently, the White Paper on the Report was issued and published in March 2014 and was followed by the White Paper implementation Committee inaugurated in May 2014.
The SGF, however, said for a number of reasons, most of which were anchored on political expediency, the White paper not only rejected a large number of the recommendations but also merely noted an equally greater number of others and that even those accepted were not implemented.
The membership of the Sub-Committee (A) main Report and the White Paper arising therefrom has Goni Bukar Aji, a retired Head of Civil Service of the Federation, as chairman.
Other members of the committee include Permanent Secretaries of Ministries of Labour and Employment, Finance, Communication Tech & Digital Economy, Power, Permanent Secretary, Common Services Office (CMO), OHCSF, Permanent Secretary, General Services Office (GSO,) OSGF and Solicitor General/Permanent Secretary Ministry of Justice.
Others are Permanent Secretary, Federal Civil Service Commission, and Bureau of Public Service Reforms as a member and Secretary of the sub-committee.
The second Sub-Committee (B) to Review the new Agencies/Parastatals that were created after the Oronsaye report was headed by a former Head of Service of the Federation, Ms Amal Pepple, and 8 other members.
The committee is to determine the need for the existence or otherwise of the new Agencies/Commissions/Parastatals in the light of the exigencies of increasing cost of governance, eliminating, duplicating/overlap of functions of Agencies and proffer time-based recommendations, not exceeding one year, on restructuring and rationalisation, if deemed appropriate of these new agencies among others.
Pepple, who responded on behalf of both committees noted that even though the timeline for submission of the reports was very stringent, saying however that members of the committees had served the nation or are still serving and would do their best to keep to the 6 weeks timeline.
She said the work of the committees was important in view of the fact that the implementation of the Oronsaye report had lingered for almost 10 years when Government continue to struggle with the allocation of 30% capital projects and 70% for recurrent.
She added that the committees would work assiduously to advise the Government on the best decision on the recommendations of Oronsaye report.
