oronsanye
SOME federal agencies are to die – should the government embrace the recommendations of a committee it set up to examine its parastatals.
The Steve Oronsaye Committee on Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals and Agencies, which was set up in August, last year, after working for eight months, submitted its report to President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday.
No fewer than 102 heads of agencies and parastatals (MDAs) will lose their plum positions, should President Jonathan implement the recommendations.
There are 541 government parastatals, commissions and agencies (statutory and non-statutory).
The committee’s 800-page report revealed that 12 years after the government had decided to either scrap, commercialise or privatise some of its parastatals and agencies, they are still receiving full government funding, which runs into billions of naira.
Besides, the committee recommended the scrapping of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The committee noted that their functions are overlapping with that of the Police.
The committee also pushed for the reduction of Statutory agencies from 263 to 161.
The committee recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, merger of 52 and 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. In all, Oronsaye said if the committee’s report was adopted and agencies reduced in accordance with the recommendation, the government would be saving over N862 billion between this year 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 billionn 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.
The committee was mandated to:
•study and review all previous reports on similar exercise; examine the enabling Acts of all MDAs and classify them into various sectors;
•examine critically their mandates and make appropriate recommendations to either restructure, merge or scrap; and
•advise on any other matters, which may be relevant to the desire of government to prune the cost of governance.
Receiving the report, President Jonathan promised to immediately set up a white paper committee so as to facilitate implementation of the recommendations made, saying that the white paper should be ready in two months.
Oronsaye decried the average cost of governance, which he said ranks among the highest in the world.
Oronsaye noted that there are 541 Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies (statutory and non-statutory).
“The Committee believes that if the cost of governance must be brought down, then both the Legislature and Judiciary must make spirited efforts at reducing their running costs as well as restructuring and rationalising the agencies under them since the three arms make up the government,” Oronsaye said.
Citing the case of EFCC and ICPC, which the committee noted are performing the traditional functions of the Police, it observed “that even though the two Commissions were established separately to address corruption, which the Police appeared to have failed to do, successive administrations have ironically continued to appoint the Chairman of the EFCC from the Police Force while the methodology adopted by the ICPC in conducting investigations as well as the training of its personnel in investigation procedure are carried out by the Police.
“Mr. President, the point that must be reiterated is the fact that an institution is inefficient and ineffective should not be a basis for the creation of new ones.
The officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force have been reputed for performing exceptionally and winning laurels while on international peace-keeping and other missions. This implies that the problems of our Police are not incurable.”
Also, the Oronsaye Committee noted that there was no basis for setting up the FRSC, which duplicates the functions of the Department of the Highways of the Federal Ministry of Works on one hand and the Nigeria Police functions of maintaining laws and order on the roads on the other hand.
“One case that stands out clearly in this regard is that of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), which should not be in existence in its present form. What the FRSC was set up to do is a replication of the mandates of two existing bodies namely: the Highway Department of the Federal Ministry of Works with respect to the maintenance of safety and orderliness on our highways and the role of the Nigeria Police Force in ensuring law and order on our roads.
“Indeed, it is a fundamental breach of acceptable practice of good public sector governance to create a new agency or institution as a response to the seeming failure or poor performance of an existing agency in order to suit political or individual interests.
“Such a practice has proved eventually to precipitate systemic conflicts, crises and even collapse at a substantial but avoidably high financial cost to government”.
Other agencies cited doing overlapping functions are the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) in the area of frequency allocation.
Also, UBEC, 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.
Oronsaye said: “Expectedly, there will be resistance and reluctance by those who will always want to protect territories or seek to promote their selfish interests. While noting that the decisions to be taken by the Administration will be difficult, we are emboldened by the principle that if a decision is for the common good, it is best that those decisions are taken without delay.”
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