ORONSAYE REPORT RESURRECTS TWELVE YEARS AFTER : THE IMPLICATIONS
ORONSAYE
REPORT RESURRECTS TWELVE YEARS AFTER
THE
IMPLICATIONS
Last Monday, Nigerians again woke up to what has fast
become a norm. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has ORDERED full implementation of the Oronsaye Panel report.
The minister of Finance, Budeget and National planning,
Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday disclosed that the President’s approval has already
been forwarded to the Head of Service and the Secretary to the Federal
Government.
Oronsaye report is nickname for a document submitted to the Nigerian government in 2012 by a seven-man Presidential Committee on the Rationalization and Restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. The report was followed by the Goni Aji Report which reviewed it, the White Paper released by the President Jonathan administration, the Ama Pepple White Paper and the Ebele Okeke White Paper.
The Oronsaye Report is named after Mr. Stephen Oronsaye,
the former Head of Service of the Federation, who chaired Nigeria’s
Presidential Committee on the Rationalization and Restructuring of Federal
Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies. The Nigerian government
commissioned the report to address concerns about duplication, inefficiency,
and bloated bureaucracy in the federal civil service.
If the report’s
recommendations are put into practice, over 100 heads of agencies and
parastatals will lose their positions.
It proposed reducing the
number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, abolishing 38, merging 52, and
reverting 14 to departments within ministries.
The report proposed
conducting a management audit of 89 agencies to capture biometric features of
employees, as well as discontinuing government funding for professional
bodies/councils.
Furthermore, the Oronsaye
report stated that if implemented, the government could save more than N862
billion between 2012 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 billion
from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from
polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million federal
medical center boards.
Jonathan’s administration
formed a White paper committee, which rejected the majority of the
recommendations while those accepted were not implemented.
In November 2021, the
Federal Government established a committee to review the Orosanye report and
its white paper, chaired by Goni Aji, a retired Head of the Federation’s Civil
Service.
The second committee was
formed to review agencies established from 2014 to the 2021, and it was chaired
by Amal Pepple, another retired Head of the Federation’s Civil Service.
Following the submission of
their reports, the Federal Government established another committee in July
2022, chaired by Ebele Okeke, a former Head of the Federation’s Civil Service,
to produce a white paper on the reports.
However, at the presentation
of the white paper to the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation,
Boss Mustapha, in Abuja, Okeke stressed that it is pertinent to discuss with
the leadership of the National Assembly to achieve the desired result, adding
that most of the agencies created were products of bills from the National
Assembly
Some of the agencies that
will be affected include the following.
Pension Transitional
Arrangement Directorate to be scrapped and functions transferred to the Federal
Ministry of Finance
National Senior Secondary
Education Commission (NSSEC) to be scrapped and functions transferred to the
department of Basic and Secondary Education in the Federal Ministry of
Education.
National Agency for the
Control of Aids (NACA) to be merged under the Centre for Disease Control in the
Federal Ministry of Health.
National Emergency Agency
(NEMA) to be merged with National Commission Refugee, Migration and Internally
Displaced Persons (NCFRMI).
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Directorate of Technical
Cooperation in Africa (DTCA) to be merged with Directorate of Technical Aid
(DTAC) and to function as a department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Federal Radio Corporation
(FRCN) to be merged with Voice of Nigeria (VON)
The National Commission for
Museums and Monuments to be merged with the National gallery of Arts.
The National Theatre to be
merged with the National Troupe of Nigeria.
The National Metallurgical
Development Centre (NMDC) to be merged with National Metallurgical Training
Institute (NMTI).
Service Compact with all
Nigerians (SERVICOM) to be subsumed to function as a department under Bureau
for Public Service Reforms (BPSR).
Border Communities
Development Agency (BCDA) to be subsumed to function as a department under the
National Boundary Commission (NBC).
National Salaries, Income
and Wages Commissioned (NSIWC) to be subsumed into Revenue Mobilisation &
Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMAFC).
Public Complaints Commission
(PCC) to be subsumed under National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
The Nigerian Film and Video
Censors Board (NFVCB) to be subsumed as a department in the Ministry of Arts,
Culture and Creative Economy.
Niger Delta Power Holding
Company (NDHC) to be relocated to the Ministry of power.
National Agricultural Land
Development Agency [NALDA] to be relocated to the Federal Ministry of
Agriculture and Food Security.
National Blood Service
Commission to be converted into an Agency and relocated to the Federal Ministry
of Health.
Nigerians in Diaspora
Commission (NIDCOM) to be converted into an Agency and transferred to the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Oronsaye Report faced
several challenges and criticisms from various quarters, which hindered its
full implementation. Some of the challenges are:
The resistance from the
career civil servants, the National Assembly, and the politicians, who may
perceive the report as a threat to their interests, influence, and patronage.
The legal and constitutional
hurdles, which may require amendments to the enabling Acts and laws of some of
the affected agencies and entities.
The lack of political will
and commitment, which may result in the selective or partial implementation of
the report, depending on the convenience and preference of the executive and
legislative arms of government.
The limited scope and impact
of the report, which did not address some of the fundamental issues affecting
the cost and quality of governance, such as the size and remuneration of the
political class, the infrastructure deficit, and the economic diversification.
Since the President’s fiat,
reactions have been many and varied.
To some, a full
implementation of a report 12 years after it was first made, which ordinarily
may be described as outdated, especially because of how dynamic the society,
economy, polity, technology and all facets of our national life has been may
not be okay without thorough review and consultation.
Contrary to the assumption
that the full implementation of the report would reduce cost of governance,
with the current realities, the full implementation of the report will not
substantially reduce the cost of governance as it does not reflect the current
situation in the Public Service of the Federation.
The House of Representative
expressed worries that a full implementation of 2012 Oronsaye report in 2024
will certainly throw up unintended consequences, implications and outcomes.
Professor Tunji Olaopa, a
former Federal Permanent Secretary, said implementing the report will only be a
“first leg on the required house keeping that government requires to align
revenue with expenditure”.
Another issue worthy of note
is the fact that many of the affected MDAs require legislation since there were
laws that established them.
Dr Goke Adegoroye, in a
recent interview identified three major roadblocks the implementation may face.
They include politicians who are desirous/await political
appointments/recognitions who may think shrinking the number of agencies will
reduce their chances of board appointment. Another is fear of job loss by
career civil servants in the MDAs to be abolished or merged. The last is the
National Assembly whose members need to enact laws required for abolishing and
merging the MDAs and the legal and constitutional hurdles, which may require
amendments to the enabling Acts and laws of some of the affected agencies and
entities.
One can only hope the fiat
was well thought of and not a knee-jack decision like the subsidy removal which
has boomeranged and which policy has been reversed behind the scene.
The report may require some
tinkering with instead of using a twelve-year old solution today.
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