President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of a report submitted by the presidential committee on restructuring and rationalization of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Commonly called the Oransaye report, the 800-page report had recommended the abolishment and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals.
Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, told Channels TV on Wednesday that the president’s approval has been forwarded to the head of civil service and secretary to the government of the federation.
“The president has approved that this administration should implement the Oransanye report,” Ahmed said.
“It has reviewed the whole of the size of government and has made very significant recommendations in terms of reducing the number of agencies and that would mean merging some agencies.
“This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation but the president has approved that this should be implemented and we have conveyed Mr President’s approval to the arms of government that are responsible for this and that will be the office of the secretary of government and the head of civil service of the federation.”
Stephen Oransaye, a former head of civil service, had headed a committee set up by Buhari’s predecessor to identify civil service inadequacies.
At the time, the seven-man committee said the “rationalization of agencies, parastatals and commissions would have human dimensions and cost implications” and recommended that the government should focus on empowering the MDAs “to do more for less”.
At the time when the report was submitted, there were 541 government parastatals, commissions and agencies (statutory and non-statutory) in the country and the report recommended a reduction in the number of statutory agencies from 263 to 161.
At present, the number of federal agencies has increased and it is estimated to be close to 1,000.