President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council have decided to implement the Oronsaye Report, cutting costs by scrapping and merging agencies for a leaner government. Implementing the report and its white paper will be a courageous move by the Tinubu administration as governments before this have not had the will to act on the report.
President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council have decided to implement the Oronsaye Report, cutting costs by scrapping and merging agencies for a leaner government.
Implementing the report and its white paper will be a courageous move by the Tinubu administration as governments before this have not had the will to act on the report.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, inaugurated, on the 18 August 2011, a Seven-Member Presidential Committee to advise on the restructuring and rationalisation of the Federal Government’s Agencies, Parastatals, and Commissions.
The report recommended merging, assimilating, or relocating federal agencies for efficiency and cost reduction. Implementation of the Oronsaye report, on which the government had since issued a white paper, is a medium to long time programme as some will even require the enactment of new laws or amendments of existing laws by the National Assembly.
After 12 years, the report is being revisited as Nigeria confronts harsh economic reality. It is however, doubtful if this would have any immediate effect on the hardship that Nigerians are experiencing due to difficult economic conditions emanating from some of the reforms under President Tinubu.
The Oronsaye report had gone through ups and downs with many analysts concluding that the government may not have the will to implement its recommendations. The Committee’s recommendations were far-reaching and if properly implemented, could reduce the cost of governance.
The Committee observed that the rationalisation of Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions would help the Government to reposition the Ministries to supervise the mandates of the Parastatals. It recognised that the Reform would have human dimensions and cost implications and recommended that the Government should focus on empowering the MDAs “to do more for less”
The White Paper
However, the FGN White Paper reversed a good number of the gains that would have accrued from the full implementation of the Committee’s recommendations. The White Paper employed extraordinary caution and at the end of the day watered down some of the recommendations.
The white paper committee set up by the federal government to review the parastatals, agencies, and commissions created since 2014 has submitted a draft report
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustafa, inaugurated the committee on July 1 2022 in Abuja. The committee was given a six-week time frame to submit its report. Ebele Okeke, former head of service, was appointed to chair the committee.
Other factors considered include “the need to develop diverse sources of revenue for the government as well as encourage some agencies of government to be self-funding; the principle of building strong institutions to guarantee service delivery to the populace and the imperative to grow the economy, create employment and stay on the critical path to achieve development objectives”.
Mrs Okeke said the committee also carried out a “content analysis of the legal framework setting up the PAS under review, analysis of the budgetary provisions of the PACs for the period under consideration”.
She said the committee “observed that the legal framework/enabling Act of some of the PACs did not clearly define structure, management and oversight,” adding that “most of the laws used agency, commission, and board interchangeably”.
“For instance, where the organization is defined as a commission, the provisions of the law did not support the structure of a commission. In this regard, where the committee recommended change in status/name, amendment of the Act/Law 1s also recommended, accordingly,” she added.
Speaking on the resolution of the Federal Executive Council on the issue, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser Media and Strategy, said “the Council in order to enhance efficiency in the Federal service and reduce the cost of governance, decided to implement the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye panel on the restructuring and rationalisation of Federal agencies, parastatals and commissions.
The implementation involves merging, subsuming and scrapping agencies with similar functions.
The Oronsaye report was submitted in 2012 to the Jonathan administration. In 2014, the Jonathan government released a white paper on the report. The Buhari administration after re-examining the white paper also released a second white paper in August 2022, but did not implement the report.
However, the Tinubu administration has decided to confront the monster of high governance cost by implementing elements of the report.
An eight-man committee has a 12-week deadline to ensure that the necessary legislative amendments and administrative restructuring needed to implement the reforms are effected efficiently.
The committee comprises the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service, Attorney General and Justice Minister, Budget and Planning Minister, DG Bureau of Public Service Reform, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Special assistant to the president on National Assembly. The Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as the secretariat.
Key recommendations for implementation:
National Salaries, Income and wages Commission to be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. The National Assembly will need to amend the constitution as RMAFC was established by the constitution.
Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission to be merged with Bureau of Public Enterprise and be rechristened as `Public Enterprises and Infrastructural Concession Commission. National Human Rights Commission to swallow Public Complaints Commission
Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) is to be scrapped and functions to be taken over by Federal Ministry of Finance
NEMA and National Commission for Refugees to be fused to become National Emergency and Refugee Management Commission
Border Communities Development Agency to become a department under National Boundary Commission. NACA and NCDC to be merged. SERVICOM to become a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform (BPSR)
NALDA to return to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Federal Ministry of Science to supervise a new agency that combines NCAM, NASENI and PRODA
National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Gallery of Arts to become one entity that will be known as the National Commission for Museums, Monuments and Gallery of Arts.
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