ABUJA—Federal Execu-tive Council, FEC, has approved the merger of Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, with Independent Corrupt Practices and Other
Related Offences Commission, ICPC, to form one anti-corruption agency.
It also approved the scrapping of
Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE; National Poverty Eradication Programme,
NAPEP; National Economic Intelligence Committee; Fiscal Responsibility
Commission; Utilities Charges Commission and National Salaries, Incomes and
Wages Commission, NSIWC.
Ekpo Nta ICPC boss and Ibrahim
Lamorde EFCC boss
The council took the decision at its
meeting last Wednesday, while considering the White Paper prepared by the
Stephen Oronsanye-led Committee on the restructuring of Federal Government
Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies.
A presidency source said FEC had been
reviewing the report and took a decision on it on June 26.
The source explained that government
had directed that a Sunset Clause should be introduced to BPE to
conclude its assignment and wind down.
Staff, duties redistribution
FEC also directed the Attorney-General
and Minister of Justice to initiate the necessary action for the abolition of
the Fiscal Responsibility Commission.
Staff of the Utilities Charges
Commission, which will also suffer similar fate, are to be redeployed to the
Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, provided they are civil
servants.
National Salaries, Incomes and Wages
Commission, NSIWC, will also cease to exist as the government will repeal its
law, while its functions are to be transferred to Revenue Mobilisation
Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC.
National Economic Intelligence
Committee, which was meant to be the economic think-thank for the President is
also to be scrapped.
NAPEP is to be scrapped for failing
to deliver on its mandate.
According to the source, “government
accepts the scrapping of NAPEP and directs that the functions of NAPEP be
merged with National Directorate of Employment, NDE.”
It was gathered that the
restructuring and rationalisation of parastatals, commissions and agencies of
the Federal Government are part of measures to reduce its high recurrent budget
profile.
Merged
EFCC and ICPC are to be consolidated
into one anti-corruption agency.
Government has, therefore, directed
the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to initiate the necessary action
in respect of the proposed merger.
Similarly, the Nigerian Export
Promotion Council and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council have been
merged “to synergise for management and utilisation of resources.”
Public Complaints Commission, PCC,
is to be merged with the Human Rights Commission, which has the capacity to
perform the functions of the PCC.
Government further directed that the
PCC Act be removed from the Constitution by amending Sections 153 and 315.
On NYSC
National Youth Service Corps, NYSC,
is also to be restructured with a view to developing a framework to cover
critical areas of national socio-economic development to which NYSC members
would be deployed for their primary assignments.
The government, however, rejected
the committe’s recommendation that the committee merge National Emergency
Management Agency, NEMA, with Refugee Commission.
The final report on the
recommendations said: “The government rejects the recommendation that NEMA be
merged with National Refugees Commission into one agency to be known as the
National Emergency Management and Refugees Commission.”
Denied budgetary allocations
Government further decided that as
from 2015 fiscal year, Council for Registered Engineers, COREN, which is a
professional body, will no longer receive budgetary allocations from the
federal government.
A similar fate awaits the Surveyors
Registration Council, SRC.
The source explained that the
process of scrapping and merging the affected agencies could take several
years, especially as the laws establishing them have to be repealed or amended.
Source:Vanguard
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