As a result of President Bola Tinubu’s decision to fully implement the Oronsaye report, various government departments have been announced to be merged, absorbed, eliminated, or relocated.
Following the Federal Executive Council meeting on Monday at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja, this was disclosed to State House Correspondents by Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation.
“So in a very bold move today, this administration, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, consistent again with his courage to take very far-reaching decisions in the interest of Nigeria, has taken a decision to implement the so-called Oronsaye Report.
“Now, what that means is that a number of agencies, commissions, and some departments have actually been scrapped. Some have been modified, and marked while others have been subsumed. Others, of course, have also been moved from some ministries to others where the government feels they will operate better,” said Idris.
As a result, the President established a committee to carry out the relocations, mergers, and scrapping within a 12-week period, according to Mrs. Hadiza Bala-Usman, Tinubu’s Special Advisor on Policy Coordination.
The Oronsaye study on public sector reforms, which was submitted in 2012, found that there are 541 Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and organizations, both statutory and non-statutory.
Under the direction of former Head of Civil Service Stephen Oronsaye, the then-President Goodluck Jonathan had established the 800-page Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions, and Agencies a year earlier.
The committee’s recommendations included cutting 263 statutory agencies to 161, eliminating 38 agencies, merging 52, and returning 14 to departments within various ministries.
The report also suggests that the Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Responsibility Commission assume the National Salaries and Wages Commission’s duties and that the legislation creating it be repealed.
It recommended that the FG combine the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission, and the Code of Conduct Bureau—the top three anti-corruption organizations in the country.