In another bold decision, underscoring demonstration of political will, President Bola Tinubu on Monday ordered full implementation of the 12-year old Oronsaye report.
Since 2012, the report had gathered cobwebs in government’s shelf as successive administrations ignored it even amid hue and cry about the high cost of governance.
The Oronsaye report on public sector reforms, submitted in 2012, had disclosed that there were 541—statutory and non-statutory—Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies.
The 2011 report, commissioned by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, had called for the consolidation, merger or scrapping of numerous redundant and inefficient government parastatals, to achieve cost-effective as well as lean and efficient federal bureaucracy.
Addressing State House Correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris announced that President Tinubu had approved wide-ranging reforms based on the Oronsaye recommendations.
According to him, numerous agencies would be scrapped, others merged or restructured.
He said the move was a cost-cutting measure to streamline government and governance.
The minister assured workers that the shake-up would not initially affect jobs.
According to him: “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, marked while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where government feels they will operate better.”
Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Mrs. Hadiza Bala-Usman, said following the announcement, the President had consequently constituted a committee to implement the mergers, scrapping and relocations within 12 weeks.
Recall that Jonathan 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, Stephen Oronsaye.
The 800-page report turned in by Oronsaye recommended that 263 of the statutory agencies be slashed to 161; 38 agencies be scrapped; 52 be merged and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.
The report 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 had advised the FG 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.
