Reps Probe Duplication Of Functions Among Agencies

House of Representatives has constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate the duplication of functions among the federal agencies.

The constitution of the committee follows a motion passed earlier this month in the House that 1,484 agencies had duplicated responsibilities and must be consolidated.

The Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, who inaugurated the committee headed by Hon Victor Mela Danzaria, said uncertainty sets in when there are multiple agencies carrying out the same functions, leading to bickering, suspicion, and eventually duplication of efforts and waste of hard-earned government resources and time.

He urged that Labour be represented in the probe.
“I do hope sincerely that the Labour is also represented here because you don’t want a situation where the committee would have completed its work and at the end of the day, after the horses bolted from its table, other organisations and critical stakeholders such as the Labour would now begin to cry foul. We are only doing what we believe is in the best interest of good governance,” he said.

He said an organization’s vision and mission must of necessity be derived from the mandate and functions enunciated by its establishment act or any instrument that establishes it.

Gbajabiamila said governments in the past have put in place measures to ensure effective and efficient service delivery by agencies of government, e.g., SERVICOM, but this could not achieve much without a clearly defined mandate.