Due to the economic recession in the country, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday urged the House to focus more on the amendment of existing government agencies by giving them additional functions, rather than establishing new ones.
The Speaker said this during the opening remarks at a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Information and National Orientation, Ethics and values.
According to him, “As a parliament, we must weigh very carefully the cost of setting up new government agencies especially during this period of economic recession.
“Sometimes, instead of establishing new agencies, we may just amend the laws setting up similar existing agencies by incorporating the mandate of the new agencies into the old one.
“This is because to set up a new bureaucracy with complement of directors, offices, equipment may be unnecessary.”
The public hearing was aimed at collectively analysing the content of four bills that have passed second reading at plenary and subsequently referred to the committee for further legislative action.
The bills are, “A Bill for an Act to Amend the National Broadcasting Commission Act (HB 168), a Bill for an Act to Provide for the Regulation and Conduct of Broadcasting Profession in Nigeria (HB 150); a Bill for an Act to Repeal Nigerian Films Corporation and Re-enact the Nigerian Films Commission (HB 584) and a Bill for an Act to Establish the National Agency for Ethics and Values (HB 519).”
One of the bills (HB 168) proposed to insert to address the issues of competition, monopoly and wholesale offer in the nation’s broadcasting market while another was on the proposed Federal Competition Bill pending at the Committee of Whole of the House.
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