As part of measures to cut cost of governance, the Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies which was constituted on August 18, 2011, had submitted it’s report to the Federal Government, and the reported has been dusted for necessary action.
While the report recommended that of the 541 statutory and non-statutory federal government parastatals, agencies and commissions, 263 statutory agencies should be reduced to 161, it added that 38 agencies should be abolished, 52 agencies merged, and 14 reverted back to departments in ministries.
Subsequently, the White Paper on the Report was issued and published in March, 2014 and was followed by the White Paper implementation Committee inaugurated in May, 2014.
However, he said while the White paper not only rejected a large number of the recommendations, it also noted an equally greater number of others, with some agencies created since then.
Inaugurating the subcommittees yesterday, Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha, said it was also improper for government to continue to fund professional bodies.
Mustapha, who was represented by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation HOS, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, declared that there was futility in creating another body to perform the functions of an already existing statutory entity, noting that the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of an existing institution does not justify the creation of a new one.
He said; “Nigeria has continued to suffer under a daily increasing weight of a high cost of governance under-pinned by high personnel and overhead costs to the detriment of having adequate resources for development projects.
‘’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.”
“The inability to implement the report of the Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions is 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 government.
‘’Furthermore, new agencies were also created to compound the situation. 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 two subcommittees “are to review the main report and White Paper on restructuring and rationalization of federal government parastatals, agencies and commissions; and review new agencies created after the submission of the above report from 2014 to date.’’
According to him, this will provide government with action plan and roadmap to implement the recommendations contained therein.
While the subcommittee on the main report is chaired by a former Head of Service, Mr Goni Bukar Aji and has nine other members, including eight federal permanent secretaries, the subcommittee in the review of new agencies/parastatals created after the main report in 2014, is also chaired by a former Head of Service, Ms Ama Pepple.