The House of Representatives has suggested the merger of Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) with the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN).
The lawmakers said the merger will save cost and address the issue of duplicate functions by government agencies.
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Chairman, House Ad-hoc Committee on the review of duplication of government agencies, Victor Mela Danzaria, disclosed this when the Director General (DG) Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Mrs Cecilia Gayya, appeared before the Committee on Thursday.
He said the two institutions would better be merge to function as one because they have overlapping functions which a single, merged entity would perform more effectively.
Danzaria said duplicate functions agencies are costing the federal government a lot of money to be maintain agencies and run while discharging similar responsibilities.
He said, “Counter productivity of established agencies is a fact that a lot of agencies led to a lot of loan we always approve as a National Assembly to maintain the organizations.
“There are agencies of government that don’t have enabling act and yet government still spends money on them. It is tough for this county to keep these agencies while we keep borrowing money to maintain them.
“The justification of the existence of your agencies we have to hear from you. If the Service delivery is not there, if Nigeria is not gaining from the agency, why are they existing?”
Earlier, the DG ASCON, Mrs Cecilia Gayya, said the institution overlaps with the PSIN in the areas of training, consultancy and research.
She however said that, while ASCON has an Act, the PSIN does not have an enabling Act adding that, the two institutions can exist side by side because they overlap in practice not in law.
