‘They’re conduit pipes’ — senate asks Buhari to scrap irrelevant govt agencies

The senate has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to scrap irrelevant and redundant federal agencies to cut down cost of governance.

The recommendation was contained in a report on the 2021-2023 medium term expenditure framework (MTEF) and fiscal strategy paper (FSP) approved by the senate.

The report was presented by Solomon Adeola, chairman of the senate committee on finance.

Speaking after the lawmakers approved the report via a voice vote, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said many government agencies are conduit pipes where funds are appropriated to every year without adding  any value to the country.

Lawan said there should be a collaboration between the executive and the legislature to identify these redundant agencies.

“Many of the agencies were created to address specific challenges as of the time they were created,” the senate president said.

“They are now irrelevant and have become conduit pipes that we appropriate money to every year while adding no value to the nation again.

“We need to work with the executive arm of government on this. I know it will be a tough task because some will argue that the exercise would lead to massive job losses but we have to find a way out of the current situation because the cost of governance is too high.

“It is not the reduction of the national assembly budget that would reduce the cost of governance. There is no money in the national assembly. Our budget is just about N128 billion out of a national budget of N13 trillion.

“We cannot reduce the cost of governance just by reducing the cost of running the activities of the national assembly.”