House of Reps to review Oronsaye report

Nigeria’s House of Representatives has described the 2012 Steve Oronsaye Report as outdated and therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to review it before going ahead to implement it.

To this end, the House raised a 23-man committee to recommend appropriate measures to mitigate the likely fallout of the Oronsaye Report review. The committee is chaired by Julius Ihonvbere, the House Leader.

On Monday, the Federal Government announced plans to implement the Oronsaye report, which proposes the merger of ministries, departments, and agencies, as a measure to cut the cost of governance.

Presidential Goodluck Jonathan had, in 2012, set up the Presidential Committee on Rationalisation and Restructuring of the Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies.

The committee headed by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye, recommended the scrapping and merging of 220 out of the then existing 541 government agencies.

Moving a motion of urgent public importance on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday, the trio of Kama Nkemkanma, Olumide Osoba, and Gaza Gbefi noted that the Oronsaye Report “Recommended the reduction of statutory agencies from 263 to 161, the abolition of 38 agencies, the reversion of 14 agencies to departments in ministries, and the management audit of 89 agencies capturing biometric features of staff, as well as the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies/councils.”

The lawmakers said if implemented, the government would be saving over N862bn between 2012 and 2015 with a breakdown that showed that “About N124.8bn would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6bn from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6bn from professional bodies; N489.9bn from universities; N50.9bn from polytechnics; N32.3bn from colleges of education and N616m from boards of federal medical centres.”

They argued, however, that the White Paper Committee set up by Jonathan’s administration rejected most of the recommendations, while those accepted were not implemented.

The lawmakers said implementing the Oronsaye Report 12 years after it was made without first reviewing it might not be in the best interest of the nation because, by now, the report “ordinarily may be described as outdated, especially because of how dynamic the society, economy, politics, technology and all facets of our national life have been.”

“Contrary to the assumption that the full implementation of the report would reduce the 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 lawmakers said, stressing that a full implementation “Will certainly throw up unintended consequences, implications and outcomes.”

Following the adoption of the motion, the House urged President Tinubu to “comprehensively review the 2012 Oronsaye Report, the Goni Aji Report which reviewed Oronsaye Report, the White Paper released by the President Jonathan administration, the Ama Pepple White Paper and the Ebele Okeke White Paper in line with current realities, while considering implementable alternatives that are in tune with current realities, and which at the same time would have minimum unintended consequences, impacts, implications and outcomes.”

The House also urged the Federal Government to develop and implement policies “that will reposition the agricultural sector, the solid mineral sector and the informal sectors which will serve as alternatives to those that may be laid off consequentially while at the same time spurring economic growth.”

Abbas Tajudeen, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who presided over plenary on Thursday, inaugurated a 23-man committee chaired by House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere, to recommend appropriate measures to mitigate the likely fallout of the review exercise.

“The committee is to study the recommendation of the executive arm of government and advise the House on the likely impacts of this restructuring exercise,” the Speaker said.