Tinubu orders full implementation of Oronsaye Report

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President Bola Tinubu has directed that the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals and Commissions, chaired by Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye, former Head of the Federation’s Civil Service, be implemented immediately.

Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, who announced this at a briefing of State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said many agencies would be eliminated, combined or restructured in line with the recommendations of the committee.

“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,” Mr Idris disclosed.

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

Hadiza Bala-Usman, Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, 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, indicated that there are 541 — statutory and non-statutory —Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and agencies.

A year earlier, the-then President, Goodluck Jonathan, 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, 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The report also recommends that the law establishing the National Salaries and Wages Commission be repealed and its functions taken over by the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.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, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission and the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Denis Idahosa, a member of the House of Representatives (APC) from Edo State, had in June, 2023, urged President Tinubu to implement the recommendations of the Oronsaye report on restructuring and rationalisation of Federal parastatals, agencies and commissions.

The lawmaker, who represents Ovia Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, said the implementation of the report would strengthen the civil service, cut cost of governance and wastage of scarce resources.

Writing by Julian Osamoto

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