Sir: According to reports in the dailies, there is a step the Federal Government is about to take in the coming year which needs to be re-examined carefully. It has to do with the implementation of the Orosanye report which recommended the merging of many government’s agencies and parastatals in order to cut the cost of running all the various agencies.

At the first look, the idea appears very good and reasonable but when subjected to a careful scrutiny, it’s easy to see that such recommendation will only create more problems than it will ever solve. Since the workers are not going to be laid off, they will merely move from one office to another only to be rendered utterly redundant while still drawing salaries from the government. 

In essence, there won’t be any reduction in government’s spending since it will still have to increase allocations to the new formations in order to cope with their huge wage bills. Therefore, there is the need for the government to think through things properly before embarking on a policy that may later boomerang and lead to a new set of problems.

• Jide Oyewusi is coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.