Oronsaye Report: No plan to sack workers, govt says

The federal government says it does not aim to sack workers made redundant after President Bola Tinubu ordered the implementation of the Steve Oronsaye report which will see many agencies shut down or merged.

The 800-page report, which has gone through three administrations, recommends that 38 agencies be scrapped and 52 of the government’s 541 establishments merged.

The recommendations, touted as a cost-cutting measure, were first made in 2012 by a committee head by former head of civil service of the federation, Steve Oronsaye.

The move to finally implement its recommendations as the country battles a crippling economic crisis that has seen prices rocket to highest levels in decades and the naira lose value rapidly, has raised concerns that jobs may be lost.

“The essence of the implementation of the Oronsaye reports is not to retrench workers, but to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of the agencies, and to also reduce cost,” the minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, said in a briefing Wednesday.

“Now, the whole idea is that government wants to reduce cost and improve service delivery.

“That does not necessarily mean that government is out to retrench workers and throw people into the labour market. That is not the original intention of government,” he said.

Highlights of the report

Under the report, the National Emergency Management Agency is to be merged with the National Commission for Refugee Migration and Internally Displaced Persons; the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa is to be merged with the Directorate of Technical Aid and to function as a department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission will be merged with the Bureau for Public Enterprises; the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission to be integrated into the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure will now be one with the National Centre for Agriculture Mechanisation and Project Development Institute.

Also, the National Biotechnology Development Agency will be merged with the National Centre for Genetic Resource and Biotechnology; the National Institute for Leather Science Technology with the National Institute for Chemical Technology and the Nomadic Education Commission with the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult Education and Non-formal Education.

The Federal Radio Corporation will be merged with the Voice of Nigeria; the National Commission for Museum and Monuments with the National Gallery of Arts; the National Theatre with the National Troupe of Nigeria and the National Metrological Development Centre with the National Metrological Training Institute.

Also, the Nigerian Army University, Biu, Borno state, and the Air Force Institute of Technology will now function as a faculties of the Nigerian Defence Academy.

The Service Compact with Nigeria, popularly known as SERVICOM, will be a department under the Bureau for Public Service Reform; the Border Communities Development will become a department at the National Boundary Commission, while the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission was merged into the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission.

The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution was subsumed under the Institute for International Affairs; the Public Complaints Commission under the National Human Rights Commission; the Nigerian Institute for Trypanosomiasis into the Institute for Veterinary Research; the National Medicine Development Agency under the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development and the National Intelligence Agency Pension Commission under the Nigerian Pension Commission.

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company has been relocated to the Ministry of Power; the National Agricultural Land Development Agency to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security; the National Blood Service Commission has been converted into an agency and relocated to the Federal Ministry of Health even as the Nigerian Diaspora Commission becomes an agency at the Federal Ministry of Finance.