Anxiety as Government implements Oronsonye panel’s report

SGF directs Finance Ministry, AGF to stop funding of listed agencies (Salaries of affected workers to be suspended)

There is growing nervousness among Federal Government workers as the Presidency has commenced the implementation of the White Paper on the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of parastatals, commissions and agencies.

Workers of agencies listed to be abolished, merged, commercialized or privatized seem to have resigned themselves to fate based on the White Paper printed by the Federal Government Printer Lagos in March 2014.

While they await the full implementation of the recommendations, they are shocked by the sudden stoppage of their salaries last month by the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF) through the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).

IPPIS is one of the transformation agenda of the Federal Government aimed at creating a centralised database system for Nigeria’s Public Service with single, accurate source of employee information that provides integration with other business application.

IPPIS ensures prompt payment of salaries directly to employee’s account with appropriate deductions and remittances of third party payments including tax, pension, cooperatives, union dues and bank loans.

Although the 2015 budget has not been passed by the National Assembly, it is not immediately clear why the salaries of the affected agencies were not paid in January.

For the workers affected by the new order, while their Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) battle to find words to explain the sudden development, many have been given some stipends to survive on. Such allowances were hurriedly sourced by concerned CEOs. Many of such CEOs were also caught napping, as they do not also know their fate. Official explanations do not seem to be coming in as fast as actions are being taken.

It is not also clear why government decided to commence the implementation of the report while clear cut policies on the fate of workers in affected agencies, the legal status of the affected organizations, and the privatisation framework (for those scheduled for privatisation) had not been formulated. 

The White Paper had rejected most of the recommendations of the Stephen Oronsaye-led Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies. Government, however, accepted some of the provisions of the report.

For instance, it rejected the merger of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and renaming of the Code of Conduct Tribunal to Anti-Corruption Tribunal.

It accepted the scrapping of the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) but preserved the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in its current form. The Federal Government also rejected the recommendation for an amendment in name and status of the Federal Civil Service Commission to the Federal Public Service Commission. It, however, accepted the recommendation for a single term of five years for the Chairman and members of the commission.

The White Paper also okayed the recommendation for the scrapping of Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) and directed the Attorney-General of the Federation to initiate necessary action for the abolition. Government further directed that the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) should perform the function of Fiscal Responsibility Commission. Government endorsed the recommendation that the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission’s enabling law be repealed and the functions of the commission be subsumed under Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC).

The Nigerian Financial Reporting Council ceases to be funded by government from 2015, while the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) would be self-funding from 2014.

Government rejected the recommendation of the merger of Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and Voice of Nigeria (VON) into one body to be known as Federal Corporation Broadcasting of Nigeria (FCBN). Government, however, accepted that the NTA be fully commercialised by 2015.

It accepted the recommendation that the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) be privatised in view of its potential to generate adequate funds through its training activities, while government should stop funding the organization.

Government also threw out the recommendation that the law establishing the Border Communities Development Agency be repealed and its functions reverted to the National Boundary Commission. It rejected the recommendation that government should disengage from funding current expenditure of National Institute on Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) from the 2015 fiscal year and limit itself to certain essential capital requirement of the institute.

Government also jettisoned the merger of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Refugees Commission into one agency to be known as the National Emergency Management and Refugees Commission.

The recommendation for the Debt Management Office to become an extra ministerial department in the Federal Ministry of Finance and be delisted from the office of the Vice President was rejected.

Government also objected to the recommendation that the Act setting up Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) be repealed and also rejected the recommendation that Road Safety of the FRSC be reverted to the Highways Department of the Federal Ministry of Works.

Government also vetoed  the recommendation that the enabling law of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS be repealed and also that the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria and the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission be abolished and their functions transferred to a department under Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Similarly, it refused the recommendation that government stops sponsoring pilgrims and pilgrimages with effect from 2015 Fiscal year.

Government  also rejected the privatisation of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in view of the security situation of the country. 

It discarded that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the regulatory functions of Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) be brought together under a unified management structure to be known as the Communications Regulatory Authority of Nigeria, among others.