Why govt is merging ministries, by BPSR

Agency rules out sack of workers
To allay the fear being expressed in some quarters, the Bureau of Public Service Reforms [BPSR] has said that the merging of some federal ministries by the current administration is not to cut staff strength but to make them more efficient and productive.

‘’The intention of the merger is not to reduce staff but to make the ministries more efficient and more productive. If you think about the situation we had before now, there was a Ministry of Police Affairs, a Police Service Commission, and a Ministry of Interior, and every year government appropriates overhead costs for each of them, duplicating all sorts of functions. This means the same government will not have enough money to spend on capital projects or equip the security personnel and things like that, so for that reason, this measure has come to make sure that this administration is more focus and streamlined.’’

The Director-General of the BPSR, Dr. Joe Abah disclosed this to The Guardian in Abuja at the weekend while answering questions on the position of some merged ministries by the present administration.

Abah who gave the names of the merged ministries to include Power, Works and Housing, Budget and National Planning, Interior, Information and Culture, and Youths and Sports emphasized that the action was not new but a worldwide practice aimed at ensuring that governments deliver on their promises to the people.

He said the committee set up to properly ensure the smooth merger was being led by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms. ‘’The committee under my leadership is made up of highly qualified organizational development experts from the BPSR and its partners from the Office of the Head of Service that have a specialized organizational development unit and from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”