Federal Agencies Run Without Heads

 No Vacuum In Operations;

Oronsaye Report Not Dumped, Says Presidency

WORRIES are mounting over Presidency’s seeming procrastination on a number of issues, including executive vacancies and a number of panel reports suspected to be gathering dust.

Murmurs are reportedly coming from persons who aspire to fill those positions or from sections of the country that should produce the persons to fill the vacancies, in accordance with Federal Character Principle.

Some of these vacancies include that of the Minister of Defence; the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service; Director-General of the NTA; Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission; and the Chairman of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

Personnel in acting capacity have been superintending some of these positions.

Prominent among the panel reports in the cooler or panels that have been sitting for months/years are the controversial but all-embracing Oronsaye Report on the reform of the Civil Service and Adamu Fika Presidential Committee on the Review of the Reform Processes in the Public Service, respectively.

Particularly, speculations are rife that the Steve Oronsaye Report has been dumped due to the dust it raised for its far-reaching recommendations.

However, the Presidency, waxing biblical yesterday, assured that there was no cause for alarm, stressing, “it is well, and there is a time for everything…”

Fielding questions from The Guardian, presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, made some clarification on the seeming delay in filling the identified vacant positions.

“Oronsaye Report has not been abandoned,” Abati said, recalling that the President set up a committee headed by the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) to review the report and come up with a White Paper.

“That White Paper has not been submitted; as soon as it is submitted, it will be made public and implemented,” he said.

Abati noted that even the Police Reform Committee still made reference to the report in coming up with its recommendation on the Police, stressing, “government cannot act rashly without the White Paper.”

Specifically, the office of the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) has been vacant since July 2011, when the occupant of that office, Aliyu Dogondaji, an engineer, died.

Dogondaji died on July 21, 2011, at the National Hospital, Abuja, three months to the expiration of his tenure.

In the same vein, the tenure of the 12 commissioners, including the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission, expired since October 2011.

The National Assembly Service Commission Act 2000 provides that, it is the responsibility of the President to nominate a chairman and 12 members of the commission from the six geopolitical zones in the country.

Similarly, the all-important National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been without a substantive chairman since February 2012, when the erstwhile Executive Secretary, Alhaji Mohammed Dogo, handed over to an Acting Executive Secretary, Alhaji Abdulrahman Sambo, on February 27 2012.

Dogo, who is from Bauchi State, took the Federal Government to court and that saved his tenure till February last year. That portfolio, too, falls under presidential appointment under Section 171 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Nobody has been nominated for that office at press time.

The apex revenue body in the country, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has been without a substantive chairman since April this year.

The former executive chairman of the Service, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, stepped down in controversial circumstances since the first week of April 2012, contrary to the FIRS Amendment Act 2007.

According to the Act, she would have stepped down on May 3, 2013. A letter to that effect, which was corrected during the tenure of Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, as Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was allegedly ignored, forcing her to step down in April 2012.

Mr. Kabiru M. Mashi, coordinating director, Support Services Group of FIRS, has been acting as chairman of the FIRS since April 6. Again, at press time, no one has been nominated to the National Assembly for confirmation for the top job.

Besides, the tenure of the Board members of the FIRS expired in July 2012, and there has been no nomination to fill the vacancies arising therefrom.

The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has been without a substantive Director-General since the tenure of Mallam Usman Magawata expired in April.

Ironically, the acting Director-General is the station’s Executive Director Finance & Administration, instead of the Executive Director (News), as had been the practice to pick the head of the Authority from the editorial or programme section. There was no explanation for the development in NTA last night.

Besides the executive vacancies, the exit of the Power Minister, Professor Bath Nnaji from the federal cabinet last week has added to that of the crucial Ministry of Defence, which has been without a substantive minister since June 2012.

In a surprise move on June 22, President Jonathan sacked the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Owoye Azazi and the Defence Minister, Dr. Bello Haliru. While ta new NSA was instantly appointed, there has been no nomination for the office of Defence Minister three months after the sack. The Minister of State for Defence, Mrs. Olusola Obada, has been acting in that capacity.

Meanwhile, there were indications at the weekend that the Oronsaye Report has been dumped, as influential members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reportedly brace up for appointments on the Board of the institutions that have been recommended for mergers and even outright scrapping.

The report has been variously hailed as a transformation agenda document, with the Presidency admitting yesterday that the report had not been dumped, “as another presidential panel is working on it.”

Another panel that has been sitting for more than one and half years is the Adamu Fika Presidential Committee on the Review of the Reform Processes in the Nigerian Public Service. The committee was inaugurated one month before the 2011 elections.

But at press time, the committee had not submitted its report even though the administration collected an interim report from it barely a year ago.

The public service rule and the extant laws allow only six months for public officers to act on behalf of any chief executive officers; yet, the NHIS Acting Executive Secretary has been in that position for over six months and there had been no that opportunity for renewal.

The office of the chairman of the mainstream Federal Civil service Commission (FCSC) was vacant for more than six months before it was filled recently.

The same for the post of the SSA to the President on MGDs before it was unceremoniously filled.

However, commenting on vacant positions, Dr. Abati said there was no vacuum in them.

“The fact that those positions have not been filled does not mean there is a vacuum; it does not affect the operations of those agencies or ministries,” he said.

According to him: “There are qualified people manning those organisations. For instance, the Minister of State is administering the Ministry of Defence; the NTA has an Acting Director-General, who has been working in the organisation.

“There are certain steps to be taken before these positions are filled. Only last Wednesday, the President asked the Federal Executive Council members to compile all existing vacancies and submit to him so that steps would be taken to fill them.

“That is a step showing that the President is aware of the vacancies and the need to fill them as soon as possible.

“So, let there be no fear from anyone that there is presidential inaction on all these. The President is working very hard to address all these issues.”