PARIS OLYMPIC GAMES
About 12 years after the Steve Oronsaye Panel submitted its report on restructuring and rationalizing federal government parastatals and agencies, President Bola Tinubu has ordered the full implementation of the report.
Persecondnews reports that the Oronsaye report on public sector reforms, submitted in 2012, revealed that there are 541 statutory and non-statutory federal parastatals, commissions, and agencies.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Mohammed Idris, announced that President Tinubu has approved wide-ranging reforms based on the Oransanye recommendations.
According to him, numerous agencies will be scrapped, while others will be merged or restructured, adding that the move is a cost-cutting measure to streamline governance.
He said: “So in a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, consistent again with his courage to take very far-reaching decisions in the interest of Nigeria, has taken a decision to implement the so-called Oronsaye Report.
“Now, what that means is that a number of agencies, commissions, and some departments have actually been scrapped. Some have been modified or marked, while others have been subsumed.
“Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where government feels they will operate a better.”
Also speaking, the Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, said following the announcement, the President has consequently constituted a committee to implement the mergers, scrappings, and relocations within 12 weeks.
Persecondnews recalls that Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies under the leadership of former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Stephen Oronsaye.
The 800-page report recommended that 263 of the statutory agencies be slashed to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged; and 14 be reverted back to departments in various ministries.
The 2012 report, commissioned by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, also recommended that the law establishing the National Salaries and Wages Commission be repealed and its functions taken over by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
It advised the government to merge the nation’s top three anti-corruption agencies—the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau.
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