The anticipated merger of some Ministries and Departmental Agencies (MDAs) by the federal government has remained a source of worry to stakeholders. Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf in this report examines the pros and cons
For too long, many observers have decried the perennial systemic corruption occasioned by the duplication of supposed statutory functions across several government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) with the attendant rise in yearly recurrent expenditures at the detriment of socio-economic development.
Stephen Oronsaye to the rescue
Perhaps, it was against this prevailing circumstance that in 2012, former President Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated the Steve Oronsanye Committee with the sole objective of carrying out a “Restructuring and Rationalisation of the Federal Government Agencies, Parastatals and Commissions.”
Expectedly, the Oronsaye Committee made the following recommendations: the scrapping of 102 Federal Government Statutory Agencies from the present 263; the abolition of 38 Agencies; the merger of52 and reversion of 14 to mere Departments in some Ministries; the discontinuation of government funding of professional bodies and councils, etc.
The said committee also recommended the scrapping of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and 35 other agencies. While some recommendations were approved and others rejected, in May 2014 the then government went further to inaugurate an implementation Committee on the White Paper of the report with a task to urgently wind up and harmonise agencies as approved by government.
The Oronsaye Committee had noted then that if the committee’s report was adopted and agencies reduced in accordance with the recommendation, government would save over N862 billion between this year and 2015.
The breakdown showed that about N124.8 billion would be reduced from agencies proposed for abolition; about N100.6 billion from agencies proposed for mergers; about N6.6 billion from professional bodies; N489.9 billion from universities; N50.9 billion from polytechnics; N32.3 billion from colleges of education and N616 million from boards of Federal Medical Centres.
The committee described as “a fundamental breach of acceptable practice of good public sector governance to create a new agency or institution as a response to the seeming failure or poor performance of an existing agency in order to suit political or individual interests”, as well as “misadventure in the public sector at a great cost to government”, the setting up of FRSC to take over partially the functions already apportioned by law to the Federal Ministry of Works and the NPF as a result of seeming poor performance and/or to satisfy political and individual interests.
The said committee also observed that the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) is duplicating the function already assigned bylaw to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), noting that “besides being a clear case of latter-day overlapping functions of agencies, the continued existence of NOSDRA is tantamount to paying huge salaries to persons who do nothing, but wait for spills to occur. This is despite the fact that there is a standard operating procedure for oil companies in Nigeria to clean up oil spill whenever it occurs.”
The committee also noted that three agencies: the Universal Basic Education Commission(UBEC), the Nomadic Education Commission (NEC), and the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NCMLA) all perform functions related to the provision of basic education.
“The question then arises as to why they continue to function as separate bodies. Our committee is of the view that the functions of all the other agencies should be taken over by UBEC as there is no economic gain in having the three bodies as separate entities.”
The panel noted that sadly, 12 years after the White Paper on the Ahmed Joda Panel Report on the Review, Harmonization and Rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals, institutions and agencies (2000), some parastatals and agencies, which government had decided should either be scrapped, commercialised, privatised or self-funding, were still receiving full government funding, which runs into billions of Naira.
Oronsaye, while submitting the report back then, regretted that “the long-standing challenges that beset the Nigerian public sector, including the parastatals, have created a “single story” of inefficiency, corruption, poor work environment, low morale, ineffectiveness, deceit and low productivity, thereby establishing a perception of a dysfunctional and unproductive public sector.
But after several months, none of the approved recommendations were implemented, and business continued as usual.
Expectedly, when the President Muhammadu Buhari government came on board, many stakeholders advised the government to revisit the Steve Oronsaye report on the public service so as to curb wastage.
As President Buhari settled in, it became obvious that he already had plans to effect major changes in the administration of the country in a bid to translate the ‘change’ mantra of his party into reality. To start with, the President was said to have accepted the recommendation of the Transition Committee he raised to slash the number of Ministries from the present 42 to 19 with a view to saving cost and making them more effective and responsive to the needs of Nigerians. In the same vein, many of the Ministries have been merged to ensure proper coordination of duties and ensure greater efficiency and service delivery.
A source close to the Presidency noted in reports that the number of Federal Government Departments and Agencies had also been trimmed in line with the policy of the administration.
Effectively, it means that no fewer than 50 of the MDAs that were not backed by relevant laws might be scrapped and their staff moved into relevant departments to save cost.
The Presidency source hinted, “But the point being made is that relevant MDAs that will exist under the present administration must be those backed by laws.
“What that means is that the era of doing things the wrong way to please certain persons in positions of power is over.”
Shedding light on some of the ministries that had been merged, the official pointed out that the Ministry of Aviation and relevant agencies had been subsumed with Inland Waterways and associated agencies.
Similarly, the Ministry of Agriculture has been merged with that of Water Resources under what the Presidency source described as the consolidation of larger ministries.
It was learnt that under the administration of Buhari, only 19 ministers and 17 ministers of state would operate as opposed to the previous arrangement where there were at least 42.
It was further gathered that some ministries would be run by senior ministers while others would be manned by junior ministers to save cost.
Welter of criticism against status quo
In the view of Tunde Aremu, a public commentator, the MDAs are basically where the loopholes regarding government expenditures are evident.
“In the past, most of the ministries that today exist on their own were statutorily taken care of by one or two others. But over the years, these ministries that sprang up have become avenues through which public funds are wasted. The truth is that, a lot of these ministries in the country today are functioning on the platform of duplication of functions/duties.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Faleke Sanni, an economist observed that some of the MDAs are nothing but unnecessary sprouts that should be uprooted or merged to function under one or two ministries.
“It is expedient for us as a nation to take critical look at developed societies and see how they operate, and possibly emulate the laudable practices that would suit our kind of democracy.”
The size of government at all levels, Sanni maintained, “Needs to be reduced if we are serious in tackling the challenges that are adversely impacting the economy.
“We cannot develop as a nation with the way we are going. No country has achieved considerable development when such ‘public funds wastage’ is encouraged.”
Interestingly, a recent poll result from a partnership between NOI Polls Limited and a media organisation has revealed that most Nigerians have endorsed President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposal to merge some ministries and parastatals, with majority of Nigerians (72 per cent) in support of the proposed merger of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government, and the fusion of the EFCC ICPC.
Labour kicks
The Nigeria Labour Congress appears not sold on the whole idea of merger or planned reduction of the number of MDAs under President Buhari’s rationalisation programme.
Consequently, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, vowed that Labour would reject plans by the federal government to merge MDAs and asserted that the move would achieve no good result than forcing Nigerians out of jobs, thereby worsening their wellbeing.
The reduction of MDAs which was suggested in the Stephen Oronsaye Report, the NLC said, would only be supported if labour gets “strong assurances” that it won’t affect job security.
He said that the NEC meeting will extensively discuss the unstable condition of the economy, which he said, has left workers with the challenge of coping with the significant drop in their purchasing power.
Wabba said that the NEC meeting intends to discuss the issues of economy, delayed salaries, tax waivers, and corruption, which he noted, “is no longer in hundreds of millions, but in billions of dollars” and challenged the government to quickly sanitise the system to restore confidence in the citizens.
Wabba said: “Labour is going to lead a nationwide protest to demand that the country’s looted funds be recovered while those responsible for such acts are prosecuted, as that would serve as a deterrent to those nursing the idea of tempering with public funds, especially at the level of leadership.
“For Nigeria to solve the issue of corruption, workers must be appropriately remunerated with a commiserate salary to attend to their daily needs,” he said, warning that if that was not done, workers might be tempted to aid corruption.
The NLC said that the labour movement was worried by the increase in illicit financial flow as well as high level of waivers, especially tax waivers and tasked the government to move against tax defaulters. “If this is done, there will be enough money to drive the process of governance,” he stated.
To many analysts, however, the mergers of the MDAs has become rather inevitable because of the parlous state of the country’s economy which has been brought on its knees due largely to dwindling oil receipts in the global market among others.
The question that has been asked by some concerned citizens is whether the federal government would concede to labour or still go ahead to implement the recommendation of the Oronsaye Committee. But time will tell.
