Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has urged the Federal Government to review recommendations by Steve Oronsaye’s committee report before implementation.
The association also urged the government to involve organised labour in the implementation process to ensure credibility.
National President of the association, Dr Tommy Okon, who gave the advice in Abuja yesterday, warned against job loss.
“We warn that job loss at this critical time of our socio-economic challenges and food crisis would be a recipe for mass protest and industrial unrest,” he said.
The association called on the government to make a conscious effort to cushion effects of the implementation on workers to avoid bringing more people into hardship.
Okon also observed that the realities in 2012 when the report was submitted were different from what obtains now in the country.
“Now that the government must implement the report, we call on President Bola Tinubu to re-examine the contents of the report in line with the present national realities because the state of the nation 12 years ago when the report was birthed cannot be the same today.”
While he accepted that reducing the costs of governance was germane at this time, he said the cut must include the three arms of government: judiciary, legislature and executive.
He submitted that reducing the size of government would lead to efficiency, cost-effectiveness and higher productivity.
He stressed the need for the government to cut the cost of governance and eliminate overlapping of responsibilities to ensure responsibilities were appropriately domiciled, increasing efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, national competitiveness and international ranking.
He stated that the government should ensure that relevant Acts establishing agencies that would be affected were repealed before the implementation to forestall litigations.
The association accused the National Assembly of being complicit in the rising number of agencies of government, saying: “The National Assembly should stop further consideration of bills for the establishment of government agencies to reduce wastages.”
Okon urged the constitution review committee to consider either making the National Assembly operate on a part-time basis or make it a uni-camera legislature to cut the cost of governance, saying there were not much distinctive features between both Houses, except for confirmation of ministers and other statutory compliance, which could be addressed once the constitution is amended.
ASCSN noted that investment in education, health, transportation, food and national security would pull more people out of poverty.
