The House of Representatives has picked holes in the 2012 Steve Oronsaye Report and told President Bola Tinubu to review it before implementation.
The report had recommended the merging of many federal agencies and scrapping of others.
Tinubu had, on Monday, ordered the rationalising and restructuring of federal government parastatals, commissions, departments and agencies in line with the report.
The Green Chambers told Tinubu that there was need for a comprehensive review of the report as well as other related reports and White Papers before full implementation.
The House’s resolution followed the adoption of a motion of urgent national importance sponsored by Honourables Kama Nkemkanma, Olumide Osoba and Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi.
Former Senator Shehu Sani on Thursday said during a television programme that Oronsaye report was obsolete given that more agencies and commissions had been set up by the FG after the report.
The lawmakers also corroborated the former Senator when they the report is outdated.
They noted that the full implementation of the report which is “12 years after it was first made “may be described as outdated, especially because of how dynamic the society, economy, polity, technology and all facets of our national life has been.”
They asked the president to review the Goni Aji Report which reviewed the Orosanye Report and the White Paper which was released by the President Jonathan’s administration.
The federal lawmakers equally also demanded that the Ama Pepple White Paper and the Ebele Okeke White Paper should be revisited “while considering implementable alternatives that are in tune with current realities with minimum unintended consequences, impacts, implications and outcomes.”
The House said the FG should develop and implement policies that will reposition the agricultural, 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.
Nkemkanma said the White Paper Committee set up by former President Good luck Jonathan rejected most of the recommendations in the Oronsaye Report, “while those accepted were not implemented.”
“In November 2021, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration inaugurated two committees; one of the committees, chaired by Goni Aji, a retired Head of Civil Service of the Federation, was to review the Orosanye Report and the second committee, chaired by Ama Pepple, also a retired Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, was constituted to review agencies created between 2014 and 2021;
He said the Buhari administration, in July 2022, set up another committee chaired by Ebele Okeke, a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, to produce a White Paper on the reports.
He stated, “Contrary to the assumption that the full implementation of the report would reduce 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.”
According to the lawmaker, the full implementation of 2012 Oronsaye report in 2024 “will certainly throw up unintended consequences, implications and outcomes.”
The House unanimously adopted the motion and referred to the ad-hoc committee investigating restructuring of federal government agencies.
