The Federal government on Thursday received a report from the Ebele Okeke Committee that was constituted to draft a White Paper on the Amal Pepple Committee report on new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions created between 2012 and 2021.
With the submission of the report, it is expected that the SGF will now forward the recommendations to the Federal Executives Council (FEC) for approval before implementation
Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, while receiving the report, described the report as “a demonstration of the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the Public Service for effective service delivery”.
He disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration desires to restructure the public service in order to ensure efficiency.
He recalled various efforts of the Government to address the structural issues within the MDAs with the setting up of the Bukar Aji, Committee to review the Mohammed Adoke White Paper on the Steve Oronsaye Report on Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commission.
He also cited the Amal Pepple, Committee to review new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions (PAC) created between 2012 to October, 2021; and the Ebele Okeke, Committee to Draft a White Paper on the Amal Pepple Committee Report on new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions created between 2012 and 2021.
Mustapha pointed out that the high cost of governance, in Nigeria and revenue challenges being experienced in the midst of competing societal demands are of serious concern to the Federal Government, has made restructuring in the public service indispensable.
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Chairman of the Committee and former Head of Service of the Federation, Ebele Okeke, in her remarks, stated that the Committee had “carried out content analysis of the legal framework setting up the PAS under review, analysis of the budgetary provisions of the PACs for the period under consideration.
“The potential for the PACS to be self-funding over a reasonable period of time as well as access to International sources of funding technology to build up capacity and technical expertise to be self sustaining were also considered.
The Committee said it “observed that the legal framework/enabling Act of some of the PACs did not clearly define structure, management and oversight, adding that “ Most of the laws used Agency, Commission and Board inter-changeably.
“For instance, where the organization is defined as a Commission, the provisions of the law did not support the structure of a Commission. In this regard, where the Committee recommended change in status/name, amendment of the Act/Law 1s also recommended, accordingly.
The Committee also observed that most of the agencies created (especially under Education and Health) were Bills that emanated from the National Assembly, and recommended that, “ it is important to engage and dialogue with the NASS to generate an understanding to streamline the creation of new PACs”.
The committee stated that some of the recommendations can be considered as low hanging fruits that can be implemented immediately after approval of the White Paper.
The Draft White Paper is made up of three parts, with Part 1 dealing with introduction and Purpose, Part II shows the PACs, the Recommendations and Remarks of the Review Committee, Comments and Recommendations by this Committee for consideration of the Federal Government. Part III is the Implementation Plan and Key Performance Indicators.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation had inaugurated the 8-member Committee on Friday 1 July, 2022 to produce a Draft White Paper the 2022 Report of the Committee on the Review of New Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions (PACs) created since 2012 after the submission of the Report on the Restructuring and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions.
Okeke noted that in carrying out the assignment, the White Paper Drafting Committee considered the current economic challenges and the requirement for and the requirement for Government to utilize resources more efficiently in order to reduce cost of governance
Others include the need to develop diverse sources of revenue for Government as well as encourage some Agencies of Government to be self-funding, as well as the principle of building strong institutions to guarantee service delivery to the populace and the imperative to grow the economy, create employment and stay on the critical path to achieve development objective.
