.We’ve submitted report to HoS, SGF for implementation – Finance minister
.Cutting cost of governance necessary at this point – Analyst
There is palpable fear among some Ministries, Department and Agencies of government following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive for the implementation of the Stephen-Oronsaye report on restructuring of government agencies.
The Daily Times understands that the president’s directive is occasioned by the dwindling revenues of government which is occasioned by the novel Coronavirus currently ravaging the country.
The then head of civil service, Steve Oronsaye-led committee set up by President Goodluck Jonathan had the aim of restructuring Federal Government MDAs, which recommended that 38 agencies be abolished, 52 be merged and a reduction of the 263 agencies to 161, in an attempt to cut the cost of governance, which is regarded as one of the highest in the world.
The Committee made clear cut recommendations on how the functions of many agencies can be merged in order to reduce cost of governance.
Due to the economic realities on ground, the Federal Government had already cut budget by N1.5 trillion and has lamented recurrent expenditure which is composed of civil/public servants’ salaries, allowances and pension.
The Oronsaye-led committee was mandated by former President Goodluck Jonathan on August 18, 2011 to, among others, identify civil service inadequacies.
The Committee was also mandated “To study and review all previous reports and records on the restructuring of Federal Parastatals and advise on whether they were still relevant; examine the enabling Acts of all the Federal Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions and classify them into various sectors; examine critically, the mandate of the existing Federal Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions and determine areas of overlap or duplication of functions and make appropriate recommendations to either restructure, merge or scrap some to eliminate such overlaps, duplications or redundancies; and advise on any other matter incidental to the foregoing which might be relevant to the desire of Government to prune down the cost of governance.”
Top on the list of the agencis to be affected are the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF), Ajaokuta Steel Company and National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO).
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Some of those on the list also include the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), National Salaries and Wages Commission; Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission; Infrastructure Concessionary and Regulatory Commission; the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission, Code of Conduct Bureau, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, National Board for Technical Education, National Commission for Colleges of Education, Federal Character Commission, Gurara Water Management Authority (GWMA), Nigeria Integrated Water Resources Management Commission (NIWRMC), National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Commercial Law Department, and Centre for Automotive Design and Development (CADD).
Others are Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Nigerian Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies (NIHOTOUR), National Troupe and the National Theatre, National Gallery of Arts, Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Nigeria Leather Science Technology, National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), FIIRO, NASENI, NCAM, National Rural Electrification Agency (NREA), and National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN).
Also affected are the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa (DTCA), Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), National Economic Recovery Fund (NERFUND), National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Nigerian Institute for Education Planners and Administrators, National Metallurgical Development Centre Jos, National Metallurgical Training Institute Onitsha, Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences (NIMG) Jos, Nigerian Geological Survey, National Steel Raw Materials Exploration Agency (NSRMEA), National Productivity Centre, Nigerian Copyright Commission, NTA, FRCN, Voice of Nigeria, National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Roll-Back Malaria, Epidemiology and Surveillance, Occupational and Environmental Health, and Health Emergency Preparedness and Response.
The Committee had also made recommendations on the need to upgrade the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
Major recommendations of the document reads in part: “The Code of Conduct Tribunal should be renamed Anti-Corruption Tribunal and upgraded to the status of a Court of Superior Records with the responsibility for handling only corruption cases from the proposed merger of EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“Extant anti-corruption laws should be repealed, while a new one is enacted to accommodate the consolidation of EFCC, ICPC and the Code of Conduct Bureau.
“The establishment of strong departments among others, in the proposed consolidated structure is desirable as they would handle the following areas: (i) Prosecution; (ii) Investigation (iii) Prevention (Advocacy); and (iv) Asset declaration/ forfeiture”.
Other recommendations of the Steve-Oronsaye-led Committee include the need for the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit to remain autonomous and adequate management of schools.
“The Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) should be made autonomous.
“Critical stakeholders, particularly the National Council on Education, NCE should make tangible efforts to revamp the falling standard of Education in Nigeria, including the establishment of appropriate structures for the management of quality.
“As education is on the concurrent list, state Governors should be engaged via the National Economic Council of State to drive the process and restore the standard of primary and secondary school Education.
“They should also enhance the quality of teachers and infrastructure of primary schools.
“The first nine years of a child’s education should be free and fully funded by the Government.
“Teaching should be professionalised, particularly at the primary education level.
“Fresh graduates of Colleges of Education should mandatorily undergo a defined period of internship and be recertified at periodic intervals of three years thereafter.
“All practising teachers in primary and secondary schools and equivalent should undergo in service training to enable them to obtain licenses to continue to practice.
“Teachers in privately owned primary and secondary schools should pass a qualifying examination before they are recertified to practice.
“Funds appropriated for the management and development of schools should be allocated directly to respective schools, rather than being warehoused at the Federal Ministry of Education, UBEC and SUBEB.
“There is need for the restoration of a strong, aggressive, focused and professionalised Inspectorate Division in the Federal Ministry of Education to facilitate the improvement and maintenance of standards in service delivery.
“For the recommendations to have a meaningful impact, the Education sector requires decisive and courageous leadership at every level of the Educational chain for the surgical transformation of the sector.
“The NUC-the apex body in the tertiary Education sub-sector should subsume NBTE and NCCE to form a new agency known as the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).”
Oronsaye Panel had recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and reversal of 14 to departments in minitries, and specified some agencies to be abolished.
The report also submitted that “PTDF should be subsumed under the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to ensure synergy and establish a one stop shop for training and placement of competent Nigerians in the oil and gas sector.
“The enabling law of the PTDF should be repealed and the NCDMB law amended to accommodate subsuming PTDF under NCDMB.
“A management audit of the capacity programme of PTDF should be conducted to ensure that the programme addresses the needs of the oil and gas sector.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) should be abolished and its enabling law repealed. The enabling law of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission (NSIWC) should be repealed while its functions are subsumed under the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).
“The enabling law of RMAFC should be amended to accommodate the functions of FRC as well as those of NSIWC.
“Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) should be merged with the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to form one agency for synergy and greater efficiency for the achievement of the ultimate goal of government with regard to employment generation and wealth creation.
“NDE and SMEDAN should be merged to form a single agency for job and wealth creation.
“The new Agency should be called the National Agency for Job Creation and Empowerment, NAJCE.
“A holistic reorganisation of the NYSC should be carried out with a view to refocusing the scheme to achieve its set goals and objectives.
“The career progression for the staff of the NYSC would engender the attainment of the highest position in the organisation.
“The Federal Government should engage the state Governors to fulfill their statutory responsibility in the provision of befitting orientation camps for corps members in the respective states”, the report further stated.
Meanwhile, Zainab Ahmed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, confirmed that the president’s approval has been forwarded to the Head of Civil Service of the federation as well as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
“The president has approved that this administration should implement the Oransaye report,” Ahmed said.
“It has reviewed the whole of the size of government and has made very significant recommendations in terms of reducing the number of agencies and that would mean merging some agencies.
“This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation but the president has approved that this should be implemented and we have conveyed Mr. President’s approval to the arms of government that are responsible for this and that will be the office of the secretary of government and the head of civil service of the federation,” Ahmed added.
Commenting, a public affairs analyst, Ademola Adigun, said the directive is a welcome development to prune down the cost of running the government.
According to him, salaries and wages of public and civil servants was becoming a burden for the Federal Government to handle.
“As of today, N70, 000 of every N1 million we earn is used for recurrent. That is salaries, pensions and such. The Federal Civil Service employs less than 1% of the population but spends 75% of the revenues.
“We thought that the first thing Buhari would do on winning in 2015 was to implement this report. He actually created additional agencies, burdening the revenues of the Federal Government more. GEJ’s administration when oil prices were high, had approved disproportionate salaries to some MDAs.
“Now that our revenues have shrunk by at least 65%, we have woken up to the reality of the unsustainable structure we have created,” he stated.
Adigun added that “the summary is that the party of ‘free oil money’ is over and government seems to be doing some good things. Better late than never anyway”.
If eventually implemented, the recurrent Expenditure of N4.88 trillion as stated in the 2020 appropriation act will see a drastic reduction.
It may also translate to job loss as the agencies recommended for abolishment may have to be scrapped and their staff laid off.
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