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From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
Barely a week after President Muhammadu Buhari stated that the Nigerian Civil Service is not a dumping ground for job seekers and that the outcome of the Oransanye White Paper review will result in fundamental changes in the structure of civil service in the future, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, has received the draft report with recommendations.
The president at an audience with the delegation of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria last week said the civil service should be an ecosystem that must attract the best and brightest in order to solve the country’s socio-economic problems.
The submission was done by the head of the committee, former Head of Service of the Federation, Ebele Okeke, which was constituted to draft a White Paper on the Amal Pepple Committee report on new Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions created between 2012 and 2021.
The SGF is expected to forward the recommendations to the Federal Executives Council (FEC) for approval before implementation.
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 Buhari’s administration desired 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 Orosanye Report on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commission.
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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.
According to the SGF, 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, hence restructuring in the public service has become indispensable.
Earlier, Okeke, in her remarks, stated that the Committee had “carried out a content analysis of the legal framework setting up the PACs 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.”
She said the Committee “observed that the legal framework/enabling Act of some of the PACs did not clearly define the structure, management and oversight”, adding that “Most of the laws used Agency, Commission and Board inter-changeably.
“For instance, where the organisation 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, Okeke said 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 fruit that can be implemented immediately after approval of the White Paper.
She said the Draft White Paper is made up of three parts, with Part 1 dealing with the introduction and Purpose, Part II showing the PACs, the Recommendations and Remarks of the Review Committee, and Comments and Recommendations by this Committee for consideration of the Federal Government. Part III is the Implementation Plan and Key Performance Indicators.
Recall SGF had on July 1 inaugurated the 8-member Committee, 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 Rationalisation.
