MDAs: Nigeria fine-tuning essential modalities for implementation of Oronsaye Report –Presidency

*Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, clarifies the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye Report is not stalled, noting the Federal Government is working out ‘all necessary modalities’ to ensure a smooth run of the policy when implemented’

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

The Nigerian Presidency has said the much-expected implementation of the 12-year-old Steve Oronsaye Report is not now after all, as the Federal Government is still working out all necessary modalities to ensure a smooth run of the policy when implemented eventually.

Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, disclosed this development Tuesday, August 27, 2024, while on an official visit to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Headquarters, in Abuja, FCT.

The CoS to the President, in an interview, affirmed that there is no timeline yet for the implementation of the Oronsaye Report.

ConsumerConnect reports the Federal Executive Council (FEC), chaired by President Federal Executive Council (FEC), February 2024, had approved the full implementation of the long-standing Oronsaye report to merge some Federal Government parastatals, agencies, and some commissions, while others will be subsumed, scrapped or relocated.

It is recalled former President Goodluck Jonathan had constituted the Presidential Committee on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies with Oronsaye as the Chairman.

At the conclusion of the assignment April 16, 2012, the committee submitted an 800-page report identifying, among several other things, overlapping agencies, causing wastage in expenditure in the economy.

The report identified 541 government parastatals, commissions and agencies.

It also recommended that 263 of the agencies should be reduced to 161 while 38 agencies abolished and 52 merged.

Implementation begins as the Committee’s ‘final report’ is ready: CoS

Gbajabiamila, who is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tuesday however, debunked claims of the report being stalled.

He rather clarified that the Federal Government is working out all necessary modalities to ensure a smooth run of the policy when implemented.

The CoS stated: “Oronsaye’s Report is being worked upon. Yes, we’ve been talking about this for months now but anything worth doing is worth doing properly.

“It is not as easy as it sounds. A committee has been set up looking at it, and I am sure very soon, the final report will be out and implementation will begin.

“I can’t get give an exact timeline but soon…We don’t want to sacrifice thoroughness on the altar of anxiety or anxiousness of getting things done. It will be done soon.”

Though there were attempts to implement the report during ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in office, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration said implementing the Oronsaye report aligned with its cost-cutting measures.

Going forward, President Tinubu-chaired FEC approved the full implementation of the Oronsaye report February this year to merge some parastatals, agencies, and some commissions, while others will be subsumed, scrapped or relocated.

The Nigerian Government stressed the implementation of the report is in line with the need to reduce the cost of governance and streamline efficiency across the governance value chain.

The FEC set up an eight-man committee with the mandate to implement the mergers, scrapings, and relocations within 12 weeks towards ensuring the implementation of the proposed changes in the MDAs.