Federal Government May Scrape 220 Parastatals

220 Federal Government’s parastatals, agencies and commissions may be scrapped in the on-going restructuring and rationalization exercise of the government.

Briefing State House correspondents at the end of Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday,  Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati said that the White Paper Drafting Committee have accepted 321 out of the 541 Federal parastatals, commissions and agencies recommended by the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and  Restructuring  led by ex-Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Steven Oronsaye.

But he noted that the final decision on the recommendations of the two committees would soon be taken by the Federal Executive Council.

He also assured that the on-going exercise is not meant to witch-hunt but to boost efficiency, reduce cost of governance towards delivering quality service to Nigerians.

“There is no cause for any anxiety. The Oronsaye Committee considered suggestions, recommendations from different quarters and in total, that committee looked at 541 federal parastatals, commissions and agencies. The white paper drafting committee out of that accepted 321, noted some recommendations, rejected some.“At the end of the day, the FEC will take final decision on this recommendation and when that is done, the white paper will be made public. I don’t think we should jump the gun, the thing to note is that all of this is being done to ensure efficiency, to reduce the cost of government, to avoid leakages and wastage and to make government far more effective in delivering quality service to Nigerians. “This is not targeted at pushing anybody out of work, this is not an exercise in making life difficult for anybody. This is just government restructuring for better level of efficiency. People should not be unduly anxious,” Abati stated.