Reps hint at scrapping agencies with similar functions to curb nation’s rising debt profile

The House of Representatives on Thursday revealed that loans taken out to pay duplicative government entities were the cause of Nigeria’s high debt profile.

The Green Chamber argued that it would no longer support the practice since it was ineffective.

Victor Danzaria, the chairman of the House Adhoc committee created to examine the duplication of government institutions, brought up the issue during a meeting of the panel with Mrs. Cecilia Gayya, the director-general of the Administrative State College of Nigeria (ASCON).

Oluwabunmi Amao, the director general of the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization, and the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) were also present at the meeting.

Danzaria claimed that the country had spent a lot of money on organizations that performed similar tasks.

He said: “Counter productivity of established agencies is a fact that a lot of agencies led to a lot of loans we always approve as a National Assembly to maintain the organizations. This ad hoc committee is looking at the productivity and service delivery of these agencies.

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“Another mandate of this committee is to ascertain root cause analysis of the regular bickering making established agencies government keeps spending money on.

”There are agencies of government that don’t have to enable Act and yet the government still spend money on them. It is tough for this country to keep these agencies, while we keep borrowing money to maintain them.

“Another mandate is to establish areas of mergers, synergies and justification of existence. The truth is that, though you may have your enabling Act, this adhoc committee would determine whether it should be repealed, amended or taken away.

”The justification of the existence of your agencies we have to hear from you. If the service delivery is not there, if Nigeria is not gaining from the agency, why are they existing? We cannot continue to keep borrowing money to maintain most of these agencies that we feel need to be merged or taken away.”

The director general of ASCON, Mrs. Gayya, said in her statement that the organization’s training, consulting, and research activities overlapped those of PSIN.

She explained that while ASCON had an Act supporting it, the PSIN did not, suggesting that the two institutions might coexist even though their legal obligations overlapped in practice but not in principle.

Gayya, however, demanded that the ASCON Act be reviewed in order to expand its purview.

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