By EricJames Ochigbo
An Ad Hoc Committee of the House of Representatives says that research, revenue generation and service delivery are critical conditions in the consideration process for merging or crapping agencies of government.
The Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Victor Danzaria (PDP-Gombe) made this known at a hearing on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the committee had a mandate to investigate duplication of functions and counter productivity of agencies for possible merger.
Some of the agencies under considerations were Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigerian Communications Satellite (NIGCOMSAT).
Others are, the National information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Galaxy Backbone, National Boundary Commission and Border Communities Development Agency among others.
Danzaria said that it is not about having many agencies with so many director-generals that does not deliver the required services to Nigerians but about productivity.
“The ad-hoc Committee is critically looking at these agencies, their existence and looking at possible synergies and mergers of these agencies to give effective service to Nigerians.
“One area is research, second is revenue generation and thirdly is regulatory functions and service delivery and at the end of the day, this is what Nigerians want.
“It is not about when you go to any agency, you see this man seated there on a table and services are not being offered there,” he said.
Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbata told the committee that it had generated 500 million dollars from generation spectrum auction.
“Of recent we did a successful fifth generation spectrum auction where we generated more than half billion dollars for the Federal Government.
“And of course, we went through what we call annual operating levy ran our operations, pay our staff salaries and allowances and even provide resources for intervention in diverse areas of information and communication technology in the various parts of the country.
“These interventions have been verifiable. There is no state of the federation that we don’t provide interventions like training in the diverse areas of ICT,” he said.
Danbata said that synergy between the NCC and other agencies of government exists and it is an important aspect of the vision plan of the NCC.
He said that the NCC will continue to do all within its powers to contribute to ensure that all the agencies like the NCC will continue to play their expected roles in order to socially and economically transform the citizens of the country.
The professor, however, said that it was not in his position to determine which agency should not exist or be merged. (NAN)
