Quote:President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the implementation of a report submitted by the presidential committee on restructuring and rationalization of federal government parastatals, commissions and agencies during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Commonly called the Oransaye report, the 800-paged report had recommended the abolishment and merging of 102 government agencies and parastatals.

Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, budget and national planning, told Channels TV on Wednesday that the president’s approval has been forwarded to the head of civil service and secretary-general of the federation.

“The president has approved that this administration should implement the Oransanye report,” Ahmed said.

“It has reviewed the whole of the size of government and has made very significant recommendations in terms of reducing the number of agencies and that would mean merging some agencies.

“This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation but the president has approved that this should be implemented and we have conveyed Mr President’s approval to the arms of government that are responsible for this and that will be the office of the secretary of government and the head of civil service of the federation.”

Stephen Oransaye, a former head of civil service, had headed a committee set up by Buhari’s predecessor to identify civil service inadequacies.

At the time, the seven-man committee said the “rationalization of agencies, parastatals and commissions would have human dimensions and cost implications” and recommended that the government should focus on empowering the MDAs “to do more for less”.