Following a dip in Oil revenue escalated by a fall in Oil prices on account of COVID-19 pandemic across the world, a fresh pressure is said be mounting on the federal government to rationalise and restructure several federal agencies, departments and commissions in line with the recommendations of the Mr Steve Oronsaye’s committee Report.
Recall that Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, was quoted as saying recently that “the President has approved” the implementation of the report which she admitted “has been in place for a long time.”
This latest push for an implementation of the Oronsaye Report is coming amid reports that some staff of some federal parastatals and agencies had on Monday gone to the office of the Head of Civil Service to the Federation, (HoS) requesting to know why their salaries have not been reportedly paid for the Month of October.
It would be recalled that a committee chaired by Mr Steve Oronsaye, was set up in 2011 by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan ton examine the nature, structure and relevance of federal agencies, departments and parastatals.
The committee subsequently submitted its report in 2012, roughly a year after it was inaugurated.
Given the need to restructure what some called a bloated federal civil service, some analysts have been calling for an implementation of the recommendations of the Oronsaye Report in a bid to block leakages and stem growing wastages in the federal civil service.
Recall also that the 800-page Oronsaye Report had determined and designated about 263 federal agencies that need some closer examination.
The report then listed the need to reduce these agencies to 161 and an outright scrapping of about 38 overlapping agencies that reportedly constitute a drain pipe on the federal government revenue.