HOUSE OF REPS STARTS PROCESSES TO SCRAP, MERGE OVERLAPPING MDAs

To reduce the cost of governance and ensure efficiency in the discharge of duties of ministries, departments and 

agencies (MDAs), ad- hoc committee of house of representatives has started the process to investigate, scrap and merge MDAs that have overlapping functions.

The committee is expected to investigate duplication of duties, regular bickering, overlapping functions and counter-productivity of MDAs, boards, parastatals and corporations in the country, establish the areas of scrap, mergers, synergies and report back to the house within six weeks for further legislative action.    

Speaking at the hearing on tuesday, chairman of the committee Honourable Victor Danzaria, said that the lawmakers will determine which MDAs should be recommended for scrapping or merger after investigating to know if they are executing their mandates and enabling Acts in effectively helping the government to deliver good governance in the country

“We have agencies, some doing the job of the others. Some are intervening agencies, their lifespans have expired, but they are still there, and the government is still maintaining them by budgetary allocation. It is a waste for this country. We are looking at areas where we can shrink governance but increase productivity,” he said. 

He explained that the scrutiny and merger of MDAs will enable the government to have appropriate funding of the organisations.

“Every year, the President asks the national assembly for permission to obtain loans to maintain these agencies. So, it is our responsibility in this national assembly to make sure that the enabling Acts of all the establishments are there and justifying their existence.

The National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), National Gallery of Art (NGA), the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism were the first batch of organisations that appeared before the committee to defend their existence.