President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
FG to Implement Oronsaye Report on Merger, Scrapping of Key Agencies
The Federal Executive Council has resolved to fully implement the recommendations of a committee chaired by former Head of Service, Steven Oronsaye, which called for the merger and
scrapping of some federal government agencies and parastatals as part of measures to reduce the cost of governance.
The Council meeting which was chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Monday took the decision to enhance efficiency in the federal civil service.
According to Presidency, the Council has finally decided to implement the recommendations of the Oronsaye panel on the restructuring and rationalisation of Federal agencies, parastatals and commissions after successive leaders failed to summon the political will to implement the report.
The implementation involves merging, subsuming and scrapping agencies with similar functions.
Economic Confidential recalls that 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,” a Presidency source said.
The Council also set up an eight-man committee with a 12-week deadline to ensure that the necessary legislative amendments and administrative restructuring needed to implement the reforms are effected in an efficient manner.
The committee comprises 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 while the Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as the secretariat.
The report had recommended as follows:
1. National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission to be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. For this purpose, the National Assembly will need to amend the constitution as RMAFC was established by the Constitution.
2. Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission to be merged with Bureau of Public Enterprise and be rechristened as `Public Enterprises and Infrastructural Concession Commission.
3. National Human Rights Commission to swallowed by the Public Complaints Commission
4. Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) to be scrapped and functions to be taken over by Federal Ministry of Finance
5. The National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) and National Commission for Refugees to be fused to become National Emergency and Refugee Management Commission
6. Border Communities Development Agency to become a department under National Boundary Commission
7. The National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA) and the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to be merged.
8. SERVICOM to become a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform (BPSR).
9. NALDA to return to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
10. Federal Ministry of Science to supervise a new agency that combines NCAM, NASENI and PRODA.
11. National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Gallery of Arts to become one entity that will be known as National Commission for Museums, Monuments and Gallery of Arts.
12. National Theatre to be merged with National Troupe.
13. Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa and Directorate of Technical Aid Corp to be merged under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
14. Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to become an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
15. Federal Radio Corporation and Voice of Nigeria to be one entity to be known as Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria.
16. National Biotechnology Development Agency(NABDA) and National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology to be emerged into an agency to be known as National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency(NBRDA).
17. National Institute for Leather Science Technology and National Institute for Chemical Technology to become one agency.
18. Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development to become one agency.
19. The National Metallurgical Development Centre and National Metallurgical Training Institute will be merged.
19. National Institute for Trypanosomiasis to be subsumed under Institute of Veterinary Research in Vom, Jos.
The FEC also approved construction of Lagos-Port Harcourt-Calabar Coastal Superhighway to Messrs Hitech Construction Africa. The First phase made up of 47 kms will begin in Lagos.
The Social security payments to the vulnerable households will also begin immediately. Recipients will be those with NIN and BVN.
Social security payments to be extended to graduates from NCE and upwards.
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