Finance Minister Rejects Proposal Seeking to Establish New Agencies

A proposal for the creation of new agencies to monitor and evaluate Federal Government projects by the National Institute of Peace and Strategic Studies has been rejected by the Federal Government.

This came as the Federal Government frowned at the duplication of roles, saying too many agencies were pursuing the same tasks.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, argued this at the opening session of the Dialogue on the National Monitoring and Evaluation Policy and Women’s Economic Empowerment at the State House, Abuja.

She was responding to earlier remarks by Prof. Dung Pam Sha, who represented the Director-General of the NIPSS, Kuru, Plateau State, Prof Don Pasha.

Ahmed, who was represented by the Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Clem Agba, said, “A little while ago, when the representative of the DG NIPSS, Professor Don Pasha, was speaking, he made a recommendation for the setup of an agency to handle monitoring and evaluation.

“I do not support that. I do not think that we need more agencies. What we need now is to begin to reduce all our agencies.

“We have too many and they are playing competing roles. But what I do agree with him is what he talked about the use of technology. And as part of the current M&E framework, we have developed that.”

Ahmed said the FG had upgraded its monitoring and evaluation framework by involving citizens in its projects.

Sha, who spoke to press on the event’s sidelines, said his earlier proposal was premised on the need for autonomy for the departments tasked with monitoring the implementation of FG projects.

According to him, the proposal does not conflict with the Oronsaye report, which recommends, among other things, the scraping and merging of at least 90 government agencies.

Sha said, “Well, it’s not a clash of interests or goals because we think any new agency would have a function. But we are not insisting that agencies must be created.

“The departments currently running the programme and the projects and performing the role of M&E should be given some level of independence to perform their responsibilities.

“Subsuming them into a structure makes it very difficult for them to operate. That is the issue that we’re raising.

“So we need some kind of autonomy to be given to that department, if it is not even going to be upgraded to an agency.”

Submitted in 2012, the Oronsaye report on public sector reforms revealed that there were 541— statutory and non-statutory — Federal Government parastatals, commissions, and agencies.

The 800-page report recommended that 263 statutory agencies be slashed to 161, 38 agencies be scrapped, 52 be merged and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.

The report also recommended that the law establishing the National Salaries and Wages Commission should be repealed and its functions transferred to the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Responsibility Commission.

It advised the FG to merge the nation’s top three anti-corruption agencies—the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, and the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Speaking earlier, the finance minister said implementing the National Development Plan (2021-2025) would require N350tn.

However, the FG will contribute only nine per cent of that amount.

The rest, she said, would come from sub-national governments and the private sector.

“The plan would require an investment size of about N350tn to achieve the plan objectives within the period from 2021 to 2025.

“It is estimated that the government capital expenditure during this period will be about N50tn, which represent 14 per cent of the required amount, while the balance N300tn will be provided by the organised private sector.

“Of the 14 per cent government contribution, the Federal Government capital contribution will be N30tn, that’s nine per cent. While the sub national governments capture a capital expenditure will be about N20tn, which is six per cent.”

She argued that the successful implementation of the plan would be heavily dependent on a strong partnership between the private and public sectors playing their respective roles effectively.