The merging of the two anti-graft agencies, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission has been approved by the Federal Government

The government’s decision to implement the recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the rationalization and restructuring of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies informed the merger of the two commissions. This is contained in the report of the review committee on the White Paper chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan, obtained by our correspondent on Monday.

The Agency (EFCC), established in 2003 to investigate financial crimes such as Advance Fee Fraud (419) and money laundering was established by the ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration was as                                       an urgent response to pressure from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, which had named Nigeria as one of the 23 countries non-cooperative in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering.

Obasanjo administration also inaugurated The ICPC, among other functions, to receive and investigate reports of corruption and prosecute the offender(s); and to examine, review and enforce the correction of corruption-prone systems and procedures of public bodies with a view to putting an end to corruption in public life. The two agencies were set up by enabling laws.

The Federal Executive council also has ordered the scrapping of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the National Poverty Eradication Programme and 218 other agencies established by it.

These federal agencies ordered to be scrapped or merged are included in a list already approved by the FEC.

According to Reuben Abati, spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan on June 12, 2013, the EFCC was considering the scrapping of 220 out of 541 federal parastatals, commissions and agencies.

The President, however, on Monday said that no final decision had been reached on the implementation of the Oronsaye committee report.

Abati told journalists in Abuja that the report however, is still at the FEC level and a committee was set up to review the White Paper. He further stated that there is no final decision yet on the recommendations, that Nigerians should wait until government releases the White Paper and never to rely on speculation.

“The council had conclude its three-week discussions on the draft White Paper on the report of the committee”, the Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, had at the end of the FEC meeting last Wednesday told journalist.

According to the list of the FEC, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has been abolished and its functions transferred to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Responsibility, while BPE has been ordered “to conclude its assignment”.

The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission having been abolished, will have its responsibilities assumed by the Revenue Mobilization and Allocation Commission.

The Public Complaints Council has also been abolished and its responsibilities are to be taken up by the National Human Rights Commission.

The development followed months of speculations about government’s plan to cut down cost of running the government and to re-invigorate federal ministries, departments and agencies for greater efficiency.

Moreover, the scrapping of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission and the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria was among the recommendations of the Oronsaye-committee rejected by the FEC. “the government rejects the recommendation of the Presidential Committee that the NCPC and the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria be abolished and their functions be transferred to a department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” President Jonathan’s review committee stated.

Two professional organizations, the Council for Registered Engineers and Surveyors Registration Council which the Federal Government had ordered would no longer receive budgetary allocation from the 2015 Fiscal Year was also affected by the mild shake-up recommendation by the Oronsaye committee.

The recommendation that “the law establishing Police Service Commission” be amended to make Hon. Minister of Police  Affairs to head the commission was included in the shake-ups which the Federal Government had also carried out on some of the parastatals, commissions and agencies.

The Federal government has also directed that “the withdrawal of the Military from the Contributory Pension Scheme be reversed,” while the enabling law of the Nigeria Football Association “will be amended to reflect the directive of International Federation of Association Football (otherwise known as FIFA) that the organization should be renamed Federation.”

The National Youth Service Corps is also to be “restructured with a view to developing a framework to cover critical areas of national socio-economic development to which corps members would be deployed for their primary assignments.”

The Nigeria Police council, Bureau of Public Procurement, Infrastructural Concessionary and Regulatory Commission, National Sports Commission, National Institute of sports and Citizen Leadership Training Centre were among the agencies to be retained by the government.

THE Federal Roads Maintenance Agency, which is to incorporate the Federal Ministry of Works and transformed into an “extra-ministerial department”, National Boundary Commission, Border Communities Development Agency and National Merit Award are also to be retained.

Among the list of the agencies to be retained are the Debt Management Office, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, National Bureau of Statistics, Centre for Management Development and New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the National Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS.

The report that the government had resolved to scrap some of its agencies and merge other, Abati described on Monday to be a speculative one.

“The FEC secretariat had been directed to tidy up the draft White Paper with a view to producing a clean copy that will be presented to Nigerians,” Maku has said.

But the minister had given an insight into one of the areas where the changes expected might be more pronounced as the research institutes and centres under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Maku further explained that some of the research institutes would be scrapped while some others would be placed under existing universities for improved efficiency.

“A committee chaired by the Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, was set up to take another look at a section of the Oronsaye report that has to do with research agencies spread across the country,” Maku stated.

According to Maku, the concept is to bring a report that will rationalize the agencies and ensure that they become more effective and result-driven.

Maku concludes that obviously from the whole exercise; major decisions will be taken in many of the key sectors to control the number of agencies, particularly in areas where duties are being duplicated and whose functions are related.