The House of Representatives Special Ad Hoc Committee on Restructuring of Government Agencies and Commission has begun to evaluate the Steve Oronsanye Report’s recommendations.
In 2012, the Federal Government received a study aiming at decreasing the cost of governance by combining, abolishing, and relocating several government departments and organizations.
There are 541 statutory and non-statutory Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and agencies, according to the report on public sector reforms.
According to Mohammed Idris, Minister of Information and National Orientation, the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu on February 26, 2024, authorized the execution of the study to lower the cost of governance.
According to the recommendation, 29 government agencies would be merged even as eight parastatals would be subsumed into eight other agencies. More so, four agencies have been relocated to four various ministries, while one was earmarked for scrapping.
The FEC mandated a committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, to review the report and submit recommendations.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja, the committee chairman, Isiaka Ayokunle, justified the need to review the report.
He said, “We must revisit the recommendations of the Oronsaye Report and other pertinent white papers to ensure that we are aligning our government structures with current realities, best practices, and the changing needs of our society.”
He added, “The world is evolving rapidly, and our government agencies and commissions must be structured in a way that enables them to deliver on their mandates effectively and efficiently.”
Ayokunle who represents the Ifo/Ewekoro Federal Constituency of Ogun State, noted that through the review, the committee hoped to identify redundancies, duplications, inefficiencies, and areas of improvement within the Federal Government agencies and commissions.
The committee, according to him, would hold a one-day public hearing on the matter on July 10 in Abuja.