No Timeline Yet For Oronsaye’s Report Implementation – FG
The Chief Of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila on Tuesday, said that there is no timeline yet for the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye’s Report.
He made this known during an interview after an official visit to the headquarters of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in Abuja.
Gbajabiamila, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, debunked claims of the report being stalled.
He said the federal government is working out all necessary modalities to ensure a smooth run of the policy when implemented.
There were some motions without movement on the 12-year-old report during ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in office but the new government said implementing the report aligned with its cost-cutting measures.
So, in February, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the full implementation of the Oronsaye report to merge some parastatals, agencies, and some commissions, while others will be subsumed, scrapped or relocated.
READ ALSO
●Election Losers Behind Insecurity In Nigeria – Bwala
●Bandit Flaunts Ransom On TikTok (Video)
This, according to the government, was in line with the need to reduce the cost of governance and streamline efficiency across the governance value chain.
To ensure the implementation of the proposed changes, FEC set up an eight-man committee with the mandate to implement the mergers, scrapings, and relocations within 12 weeks.
However, six months later, the report has not been implemented. Rather, the President in July created a Ministry of Livestock Development from the Agriculture Ministry, a development that has been met with mixed reactions.
Back in 2011, then President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies with Oronsaye as chairman.
On April 16, 2012, the committee submitted an 800-page report identifying, amongst several other things, overlapping agencies, causing wastage in expenditure.
The report said there were 541 parastatals, commissions and agencies and recommended that 263 of the agencies should be reduced to 161, 38 agencies abolished and 52 merged.
Kazeem Badmus is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience. A professional in journalism and media writing, Kazeem prioritses accuracy and factual reportage of issues. He is also a dexterous finder of the truth with conscious delivery of unbiased and development oriented stories.
