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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
President Bola Tinubu has ordered the full implementation of the Oronsaye report.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this to State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday.
Idris subsequently announced the merging, subsuming, scraping and relocation of several agencies of government.
“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 that a number of agencies, commissions, and some departments have actually been scrapped. Some have been modified, and marked while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where the government feels they will operate better,” the minister said.
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Mrs Hadiza Bala-Usman, said the president has constituted a committee to implement the mergers, scrapping and relocations within 12 weeks.
The Oronsaye report on public sector reforms, which was submitted in 2012, revealed that there are 541 statutory and non-statutory Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies.
In 2011, President Goodluck 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 of the Federation, 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 to departments in various ministries.
The report also recommends that the law establishing the National Salaries and Wages Commission be repealed and its functions taken over by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.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 FG to merge the nation’s top three anti-corruption agencies—the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB).
According to unconfirmed reports, the Federal Government could save over N241 billion if the report is duly implemented.