THE PURPOSES and objectives of government and the content of policies are the political actions and programmes designed to pursue such values and goals. It is a special feature of public policy that its articulated aims are the furtherance of the public interest. Public policy thus becomes the instrument through which the government carries out its functions.
The White Paper on the Oronsaye Report accepted and rejected some of the recommendations of the report. Moreover, since the submission of the report and the report of the Ama Pepple Committee that reviewed agencies established after the submission of the Oronsaye report and its White Paper, successive governments have gone ahead to establish more agencies.
One policy direction of the Goodluck Jonathan administration was enhancing efficiency within the public service and cutting-cost of governance. In order to achieve this, the then President Goodluck Jonathan set up the Presidential Committee on Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies under the leadership of former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye.
The Committee submitted a report, now popularly named after the Chairman of the Committee, Oronsaye. The report recommended that the 263 statutory agencies be slashed to 61; 38 agencies should be scrapped; 52 be merged and 14 be reverted to departments in various ministries.
The former President, upon receiving the report on 16th December, 2012, set up the Mohammed Adoke Committee to come up with a White Paper on the report. The Committee submitted the White Paper in 2014. The Jonathan administration, however, could not implement the recommendations in the report before the end of its tenure.
The administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari that took over from the Jonathan administration, in an attempt to implement the recommendations of the Committee, set up three other Committees on the report, which submitted their recommendations to him. His administration was also not able to implement any of the recommendations of the various reports before it handed over to the current government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
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The President recently approved the full implementation of the Oronsaye report. In keeping with the usual practice, he has also constituted an Implementation Committee.
Adequate funding, effective management and prudent utilisation of resources are at the heart of efficient and effective service delivery in any organisation. Other factors that impact on the productivity of public service employees include motivation, leadership style, staff training, use of modern equipment, staff attitudes towards work and staff welfare.
There are three principal issues around the implementation of the Oronsaye report. The first is that four other Committees have worked on the report and submitted their recommendations on the report. The second is efficient service delivery by agencies that will emerge after implementation of the report; and the third is the protection of jobs of employees of affected agencies.
In November, 2021, former President Muhammadu Buhari set up three Committees on the report namely: Goni Aji Committee, which wasestablished to review the Oronsaye Report and its White Paper; Ama Pepple Committee, which was set up to review agencies created from 2014 to 2021 when it was set up and finally the Ebele Okeke Committee,set up in July 2022 to prepare a White Paper on both the Aji and Pepple Committees’ reports.
The White Paper on the Oronsaye Report accepted and rejected some of the recommendations of the report. Moreover, since the submission of the report and the report of the Ama Pepple Committee that reviewed agencies established after the submission of the Oronsaye report and its White Paper, successive governments have gone ahead to establish more agencies.
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President Tinubu’s Implementation Committee is therefore not only going to look at the recommendations in the Oronsaye Report; it ought to, and should, look into the recommendations of the White Paper and the reports of former President Buhari’s three Committees. It also ought to look at the agencies created after the Ama Pepple Committee report.
The process of reducing an agency’s workforce may have significant effects on both the agency and its employees. Employees’ downsizing can lead to decrease in staff morale and low productivity among the remaining staff due to increased workload and job insecurity. Organisational culture may suffer, impacting teamwork and innovation. There will be loss of knowledge and increase in workload.
Adequate funding, effective management and prudent utilisation of resources are at the heart of efficient and effective service delivery in any organisation. Other factors that impact on the productivity of public service employees include motivation, leadership style, staff training, use of modern equipment, staff attitudes towards work and staff welfare.
The effectiveness and efficiency in the public sector imply a relationship between the economic and social effects resulting from implementing a programme and effort made to finance that programme. The effectiveness is the indicator given by the ratio of the result obtained to the one programmed to achieve.
In public administration, efficiency is measured by government attaining the goal of providing the best services possible for the least amount of money and resources, while effectiveness is the amount of end product, the real service to the public, that the government is providing. Inadequate funding of government agencies as witnessed in the funding of some of the affected institutions and low staff morale cannot lead to efficient and effective service delivery.
The process of reducing an agency’s workforce may have significant effects on both the agency and its employees. Employees’ downsizing can lead to decrease in staff morale and low productivity among the remaining staff due to increased workload and job insecurity. Organisational culture may suffer, impacting teamwork and innovation. There will be loss of knowledge and increase in workload.
Reforms of the magnitude recommended in the report will definitely create contraction in the workforce with its attendant economic and social upheavals. In respect of some of the institutions, the report recommended that management audit and proper staff audit should be carried out to determine the appropriate manning levels. It is left to be seen how government will carry out the exercise without loss of jobs.
There is bound to be reduction in innovation because with reduced personnel, the agency may struggle to generate new ideas and innovation, thereby impacting negatively on the effectiveness and efficiency of affected agencies.
While downsizing of agencies may offer short-term cost saving, it could lead to challenges in the long run, such as decreased innovation and low service delivery as the emerging agencies may not be able to meet public expectations.
The greatest concern of workers and trade unions in the agencies to be affected is the fear of job losses. Although government officials, in attempts to allay this fear, have said that the exercise will not involve job loss, this remains doubtful and can only be taken as political talk.
Reforms of the magnitude recommended in the report will definitely create contraction in the workforce with its attendant economic and social upheavals. In respect of some of the institutions, the report recommended that management audit and proper staff audit should be carried out to determine the appropriate manning levels. It is left to be seen how government will carry out the exercise without loss of jobs.
Government should bear in mind, when embarking on the implementation of the recommendations of the report, that job security is an important asset for public servants whose pay cannot compete with the private sector. Job security has long been an attractive feature of public service employment. The pursuit of efficiency at the expense of job security will not be in the overall interest of the public service. It will reduce the attractiveness of public service in the country and narrow the pool of high-quality candidates for public service jobs.
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One other objective of the recommendations in the report is cutting-cost of governance. The White Paper on the report rejected some of the recommendations aimed at cutting-cost. One of such recommendations that was rejected in the White Paper was the recommendation that government should stop funding of pilgrimages and restrict itself to consular and vaccination issues.
Policy implementation is a complex process that involves a range of actors and factors. One of the most critical factors that can impact the effectiveness of policy implementation is time. The time factor refers to the duration between the adoption of a policy and its implementation, which can vary depending on several factors such as political, bureaucratic processes, resources available and stakeholder engagement. Understanding the time factor in policy implementation is essential to ensure that policies achieve intended goals. The time factor is a critical consideration in policy implementation.
If indeed one of the objectives of the policy directive of government was cutting-cost of governance, then the recommendations in the Oronsaye Report were not far-reaching. This is because government must look into other areas of wastage in public administration at the federal level.
This wastage includes but not limited to bloated bureaucracy; corruption at all levels of governance; excessive pay-outs in salaries, allowances and severance packages to political office holders; extravagant spending by public officials as well as crippling burdens of both local and international debts.
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Policy implementation is a complex process that involves a range of actors and factors. One of the most critical factors that can impact the effectiveness of policy implementation is time. The time factor refers to the duration between the adoption of a policy and its implementation, which can vary depending on several factors such as political, bureaucratic processes, resources available and stakeholder engagement. Understanding the time factor in policy implementation is essential to ensure that policies achieve intended goals. The time factor is a critical consideration in policy implementation.
The Oronsaye report therefore has suffered from time lag and it should be discarded. If it must be implemented, it needs serious scrutiny not just implementation. Inputs of stakeholders including Trade Unions in the agencies to be affected is very critical.
Comrade Prince Adeyemi, JP, is the General Secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU); Former Deputy President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC); Deputy President of Public Services International (PSI) Global and President, PSI Africa and Arab Countries.
