Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting, presided over by President Bola Tinubu, at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

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The minister explained that with the adoption of the report, it means that some agencies, commissions and departments of government have been scrapped, some merged, some subsumed under some others and others moved under new ministries where they are supposed to perform better.

“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 Nigerians, has taken a decision to implement the so called Orosanye Report.

“Now, what that means is that a number of agencies, commissions, and some departments have actually been scrapped, some have been merged, while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where government feels they will operate better.

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“Like I said, this is a very far-reaching decision. It is aimed, one, to fine-tune or to restructure government operations as a whole. Secondly, it’s in line also with decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reduce the cost of governance”, he said.

He, however, explained that the adoption of the report did not mean people working in the affected agencies and departments will lose their jobs.

Background

President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, in 2012, set up the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.

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The committee was headed by a retired federal civil servant and former Head of Service of the Federation, Stephen Oronsaye

After their painstaking assignment, the committee recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the then existing 541 government agencies.

The committee’s 800-page report noted that the government’s parastatals and agencies’ functions are overlapping.

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The committee recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161.

The committee recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52 and the reversion of 14 to departments in ministries.

The committee also recommended the management audit of 89 agencies capturing biometric features of staff as well as the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies/councils.

Oronsaye said then that if the committee’s recommendation was implemented, the government would be saving over N862 billion between 2012 and 2015.

The breakdown showed that about N124.8 billion would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6 billion from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6 billion from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million from boards of federal medical centres.

If implemented, agencies that may be affected include the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and Federal Road Safety Commission.

Other agencies cited doing overlapping functions are the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited, the National Broadcasting Commission and the Nigeria Communications Commission in the area of frequency allocation.

Also, the Universal Basic Education Commission, Nomadic Education Commission, and National Mass Literacy Commission are performing overlapping functions and should be brought under one body.

The committee again believes NTA, FRCN, and VON should be under one management.

After the committee’s report, the White paper committee set up by Jonathan’s administration rejected most of the recommendations, while those accepted were not implemented.

Punch/Vanguard