President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the Oronsaye report that was submitted by the presidential committee on restructuring of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies. The report was submitted in 2012 while former President, Goodluck Jonathan was in power.
The 800-page Oronsaye report recommended closing down 38 federal agencies, merging of of 52 agencies and the reversal of 14 agencies to relevant departments in Federal Ministries.
The approval by President Muhammadu Buhari was announced by Buhari’s Personal Assistant on New Media, Bashir Ahmaad, through a Twitter post.
Part of the recommendations approved by President Buhari was cancellation of funding to professional bodies or councils and the downsizing of boards.
At present, the number of Federal Agencies in Nigeria is around 1,000.
The seven-man committee was set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan to discover the loopholes in the civil service, inaugurated on August 18, 2011 and was headed by former Head of Civil Service, Stephen Oronsaye. The committee however submitted its report on April 16, 2012.
The committee stated that the “rationalization of agencies, parastatals and commissions would have human dimensions and cost implications” and suggested that the government should pay attention to empowering the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDA) “to do more for less”.
There were 541 government parastatals, commissions and agencies including statutory and non-statutory in the country when the report was submitted and the report recommended that statutory agencies should be reduced from 263 to 161.
