In the first week of June 2020, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, revealed that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had attacked all revenue sources of the Federal Government. The 2020 budget of the Federal Government is now an austerity one, as the original budget of N10.59 trillion presented to the National Assembly with fanfare in October 2019 and passed by it in December 2019, has been revised in May 2020 in line with the COVID-19-induced economic reality. A budget that was based on a crude oil benchmark of $57 per barrel is now predicated on a benchmark of $25 per barrel.
The palpable negative effects of this revision on the original allocations to various competing sectors of the government is very incontrovertible. But unfortunately, education and health sectors appear to be bearing the brunt. For example, the allocations to education (UBE) and health (Basic health care) were considerably reduced to as much as 54.25% and 42.5% respectively.
It is therefore no secret that the government is frantically exploring ways of increasing its revenue and reducing wastage in its expenditure. One of the options that the government adopted was to revisit the Report of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies (The Stephen Oronsaye Report) of 2012. About two months ago, President Muhammadu Buhari directed that the Oronsaye Report should be implemented.
It is important to note that the Oronsaye Report has been reviewed three times altogether under the Jonathan administration and the Buhari administration. The Jonathan administration that established the Committee released a White Paper on it, and also established four sub-committees to oversee its implementation before leaving office. This was the stage of the Report when President Buhari came into power in 2015.
Consequently, the Report has been reviewed twice under the Buhari administration but unfortunately without releasing a White Paper to warrant its implementation. Although, it was reported that the president directed that it should be implemented, the policy statements that followed this directive suggest that another review is on. It has been announced couple of times that the government plans to complete the process of implementation by October, 2020.
This is where one gets worried as to why another long review would be needed for a report that has benefited from an independent review of experts (third in the line of reviews) in 2017. That independent review was supported by one of Nigeria’s development partners, which insulated the process from the controversial territorial protection of institutional interests by politicians always in competition for such interests. By the way, what would have been an implementation of win-win recommendations (i.e. national interests and that of labour) contained in the independent review has suffered serious set-backs due to political interference that has induced lack of political will. Indeed, the protection of the personal interests of politicians against national interests has always been the cause of lack of political will.
This piece therefore is an advocacy intervention against the waste of public funds through a politically-led and interest-driven circuitous review of the Report, as it is about to happen again. This advocacy is necessary because the review of Orosanye Report is becoming an endless wasteful exercise that keeps recurring because of lack of political will to implement what already exists. Such wasteful circuitous reviews actually defeat the main purpose of the Oronsaye Report which set out primarily to curtail waste of public resources. It is therefore painful watching a cash-trapped government wasting additional resources to embark on a long process of implementing a Report that has been previously reviewed twice under the same government. It is even unacceptable that this is being done under a COVID-19-induced austerity budget.
If there is political will, what are the very clear (though controversial) issues for implementation without wasting much time and resources? The first is that the structure of governance is wasteful. People wrongly assume that the main issues centre more on duplications of agencies and their overlapping functions. Yes, they exist but they are not the main conduit pipes that drain the resources per se. One of the main problems is the existence of top-heavy manning levels with humongous expenses made on the allowances of top public officials (the elected, appointed and career officials) in the executive and legislative arms of government.
With respect to these officials, the Adamu Fika Committee Report of 2011 for example in its review of expenditures for the Federal Government held that a total of N1.13Trillion was expended on 18,000 top public servants including politicians. This represented over 25% of the National Budget during that period under review. The committee also found out that out of that sum, only N95billion was expended on salaries for these 18,000 top officials. Tis means that 91% of that huge sum was wasted on perquisites (allowances) of these officials. The clear message is that it is not the sheer numbers of poor public servants that matter, but rather the inequities in expenses of those at the top. The government should do the needful in cost reduction.
Think of the number of SUVs being used by these top officers across the entire public service, and you will get a sense of the enormous waste of resources. There is a growing culture of entitlement mentality which needs to be checked as a cost saving measure. So a low hanging fruit begging for immediate implementation is the abolition of the use of SUV cars in the public sector. This means that any proposed and indiscriminate sacking of poor public servants is out of the question in the implementation of the Oronsaye Report. But there are also areas of rationalisation and/or merging of institutional duplications with clear options of how the affected staff should be moved to other needed areas, as many areas are grossly under-staffed in the entire public service (e.g. in education and health, the security services generally).
There is no reason for a country that cannot fund education and health adequately, to be having large, unwieldy and expensive governing boards and councils. Some Federal Commissions have 36 members with one member from each state. This is completely unnecessary and wasteful. If we are serious in cutting cost drastically, all such boards, councils and commissions should be limited to seven members including the chairman. This will take care of the six geo-political zones in the country. If anyone doubts what these large boards cost Nigeria, the person can carry out an independent research on the expenses to maintain them. This recommendation can only be done anyway, if there is political will. But if the politicians hijack the implementation of the presidential directive, we will end up the same way like in the past.
Think of the number of SUVs being used by these top officers across the entire public service, and you will get a sense of the enormous waste of resources. There is a growing culture of entitlement mentality which needs to be checked as a cost saving measure.
One important area of cutting cost which was not in the Terms of Reference (TOR) of Oronsaye Report, but which is relevant for our purpose here, is the structure and composition of the National Assembly. As presently constituted, it is a big conduit pipe for draining resources. It should be restructured and reconstituted. The Senate should have only one member from a state, why the House of Representatives should be reduced to 30-50% of its membership now. So a state with 15 members (like Kano State) in the House of Representatives should have a maximum of five members.
In conclusion, all we need to implement the Orosanye Report is just political will. But does the present government have it, like others before it that did not have? If this government cannot display the needed political will, it should not waste further scarce resources to carry out another circuitous process of either a further review or a long process of implementation that would just scratch the surface. The government needs to respect the spirit of its COVID-19-induced austerity budget. Let us watch and see.
•Prof. Obasi, a public policy expert (& former columnist in the Daily Trust, Abuja, March 2003 to October 2006, & Daily Champion, Lagos, April 2005 to December 2008), is of the Department of Public Administration, University of Abuja. Email: nnamdizik@gmail.com
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