The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the full implementation of the Stephen Oronsaye Panel report to merge some parastatals, agencies, and some commissions, while others will be subsumed, scrapped or relocated.
The decision was made at the FEC meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu on Monday.
This, according to the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, is in line with the need to reduce 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.
The committee comprised Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of the Civil Service, Attorney General and Justice Minister, Budget and Planning Minister, DG Bureau of Public Service Reform, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Special assistant to the president on National Assembly. The Cabinet Affairs Office will serve as the secretariat.
FEC also received a report from the inter-ministerial panel set up to review the affairs of the National Social Investment Programme.
The Council further approved the immediate restart of the direct payments to 12 million households comprising 60 million Nigerians with key provisos.
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.
In 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.
There were some motion without movement on the report during ex-President Muhammadu Buhari eight years in office but the new government said implementing the report aligned with its cost-cutting measures.
Key Recommendations For Implementation:
1. National Salaries, Income and wages Commission to be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission. The National Assembly will need to amend the constitution as RMAFC was established by the constitution.
2. Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission to be merged with Bureau of Public Enterprise and be rechristened as `Public Enterprises and Infrastructural Concession Commission.
3. National Human Rights Commission to swallow Public Complaints Commission
4. Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate(PTAD) to be scrapped and functions to be taken over by Federal Ministry of Finance.
5. NEMA and National Commission for Refugees to be fused to become National Emergency and Refugee Management Commission.
6. Border Communities Development Agency to become a department under National Boundary Commission.
7. NACA and NCDC to be merged.
8. SERVICOM to become a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform(BPSR).
9. NALDA to return to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
10. Federal Ministry of Science to supervise a new agency that combines NCAM, NASENI and PRODA.
11. National Commission for Museums and Monuments and National Gallery of Arts to become one entity that will be known as National Commission for Museums, Monuments and Gallery of Arts.
12. National Theatre to be merged with National Troupe.
13. Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa and Directorate of Technical Aid Corp to be merged under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
14. Nigerians in Diaspora Commission to become an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
15. Federal Radio Corporation and Voice of Nigeria to be one entity to be known as Federal Broadcasting Corporation of Nigeria.
16. National Biotechnology Development Agency(NABDA) and National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology to be emerged into an agency to be known as National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency(NBRDA).
17. National Institute for Leather Science Technology and National Institute for Chemical Technology to become one agency.
18. Nigeria Natural Medicine Development Agency and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development to become one agency.
19. The National Metallurgical Development Centre and National Metallurgical Training Institute will be merged.
20. National Institute for Trypanosomiasis to be subsumed under Institute of Veterinary Research in Vom, Jos.
21. The Niger Delta Power Holding Company to be relocated to the Ministry of Power.
22. The National Agricultural Land Development Agency to be relocated to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
23. The National Blood Service Commission to be converted into an agency and relocated to the Ministry of Health.
