Fg to stop utme,neco...others

Indications emerged last night
that the Federal Government may
have resolved to scrap some of
its agencies in line with the
recommendations of the Steve Oronsaye-led Presidential
Committee on the Rationalization
and Restructuring of Federal
Government Parastatals,
Commissions and Agencies
following the completion of
study of its White Paper
Committee report. Among those
scrapped are Unified Tertiary
Matriculation Examination
(UMTE), National Examination
Council (NECO), Public Complaints
Commission, National Poverty
Eradication Programme (NAPEP)
and the Fiscal Mobilization and
Allocation Commission among others.

The Oronsaye committee had recommended the abolition of 38 agencies, the merger of 52
and the reversion of 14 to
departments in the ministries from which they were carved
out, a move the committee argued would save the government more than N862
billion between 2012 and 2015
should its proposal be adopted. A
reliable government source
confirmed that President
Goodluck Jonathan, Vice
President Namadi Sambo and
selected senior aides of thepresident met twice and eventually took decisions, which
included the scrapping of some agencies and merging of others.

Another source revealed that the with the scrapping of the UTME,
individual universities in the country would conduct their
own admission examinations
and admit students while the Joint Matriculation and Examination Board will set and
ensure compliance to standards
as it acts as the clearing house.

The source said JAMB would be modeled along the line of Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS), the
central organization through
which applications are processed
for entry to higher education in
the United Kingdom.

According to the source,
“individual university will do their
own examination and admission.

If you want to apply to a
university, you do so but in order
not to have a situation where
one person gets multiple
admission, JAMB acts as a
clearing house to free up spaces.

All the universities are free now
to admit students.” Even though
details were still being worked
out, it was learnt that
government’s decision, was
informed by the need to promote
merit in admission into the
nation’s universities because
“the idea is to ensure that the best students go to the best
universities.”

The source further disclosed that
the president had also approved
that the West African
Examination Council (WAEC) is
now expected to take over the
functions and vast infrastructure
of NECO, which now ceases to
exist. The sources confirmed that
WAEC would now conduct two
external examinations in a year,
January and November. The
Public Complaints Commission is
to be merged with the Human
Rights Commission, just as NAPEP
would also be scrapped and
replaced National Agency for Job
Creation and Empowerment.

The Oronsaye-led Presidential
Committee on the Rationalisation
made far-reaching
recommendations, which, it explained, were aimed at helping
the government to effect a
drastic reduction in the size of its
bloated bureaucracy, eliminating
duplication of functions and
bringing down the cost of
governance. The committee
submitted its report to the
president in April last year.