Oronsaye’s report: FG sets up two sub-committees to restructure parastatals, commissions, agencies

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The Federal Government has inaugurated two sub-committees to ensure the restructuring of federal government parastatals, commissions, and agencies in a bid to address the challenge of increasing cost of governance.

This is even as it said that the inability to implement the Steve Oransanye report on restructuring and rationalization of federal government these institutions are costing government highly.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, said this on Thursday at the inauguration of the sub-committee of the Oransanye report created after submission of the report in his office in Abuja.

The restructuring comes on the heels of a decline in revenue and the quest to make the federal government less of a cost center and more of a revenue generator.

Mustapha who was represented by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi- Esan said the White Paper on the Oransanye report was issued and published in March 2014 and was followed by the White Paper

implementation Committee inaugurated in May 2014.

He, however, said for several reasons, most of which were anchored on political expediency, the White paper not only rejected a large number of the recommendations, it also merely noted an equally greater number of others.

Mustpha regretted that even those accepted were not implemented.

He said Nigeria has continued to suffer under a daily increasing weight of a high cost of governance underpinned by high personnel and overhead costs to the detriment of having adequate resources for development projects.

Stressing that the need for cutting down the cost of governance cannot be more compelling than now especially in the face of our declining revenue, he said there is the need to make the Federal Government less of a cost center and more of a revenue generator.

He said “for a long time now, the country has been struggling to make sure that at least 30% of its annual budget goes into capital projects.

“You would all agree with me

that the inability to implement the report of the Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions are costing government highly.

This cost grows higher for every delay that the implementation suffers. This is further worsened by the fact that immediately after the report was released, parastatals and agencies billed for mergers or scrapping began developing means of further entrenching themselves as a major expenditure source to the government.

“Furthermore, new agencies were also created to compound the situation.

“At this juncture, permit me to say that besides the impropriety of Government funding professional associations, the underlying principles for restructuring and rationalizing these government agencies remain more urgent now than when the initial committee was constituted in 2011.

He said the committee should proffer time-based recommendations, not exceeding one year, on restructuring and rationalization, if deemed appropriate of these new agencies.

“Two Committees viz: review the Main Report and White paper on Restructuring and rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies, and Commissions.

“Review new agencies created after the Submission of the above report from 2014 to date; were therefore constituted to provide the government with action plan and roadmap of implementing the recommendations contained therein,” he added.