Oronsaye Report: Over 400 MDAs Set To Go
The Senate, through its Committee on Finance, on Wednesday, said over 400 out of 541 Federal Government owned Ministries , Departments and Agencies (MDAs) , are to be scrapped as recommended by Stephen Orosanye-led Presidential Committee on Rationalisation of Agencies.
Chairman of the Committee, Solomon Olamilekan who made the declaration at the second day of the ongoing interface between the Committee and heads of MDAs on revenue drive for the implementation of proposed N19.76 trillion 2023 budget, said Orosanye panel recommended retention of 106 of the MDAs .
He said revenue generation is the most critical factor being considered by the federal government to decide the 106 MDAs to be retained and over 400 others to be scrapped .
The lawmaker said the scrapping of low revenue generating MDAs by the Federal Government, came to the fore when the Director-General of National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba made presentation of low revenue generation by the agency to the committee.
Director-General said only N2 million has been generated by NBMA this year as against N5 million it usually generates on yearly basis and that, out of the N2 .5 billion appropriated for capital budget this year, only N1.3 billion has been released.
Angered by the poor revenue generation , Adeola told the Biosafety Management Agency boss, that it was unacceptable for an agency spending N500million a year outside capital projects to be remitting N5milllion into government coffers .
He declared that the time for such low revenue generation by any government agency was over as those not meeting up , will be scrapped as recommended by the Orosanye panel. There is no way in stopping the implementation of Orosanye panel because of economic situation at hand in the country.
“Government needs revenue for impactful budget implementation, particularly in the area of projects execution and can no longer afford to be dolling money to MDAs without corresponding returns on yearly basis . We in the Senate , are in support of implementation of the Orosanye led panel report to save the economy from self – inflicted bleeding.
