Olayemi Esan, Abuja
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed worry over a survey report that highlights persistent corruption, duplicity of functions, poor service orientation and other anti-business disposition in some of the Federal Government’s regulatory agencies.
Osinbajo and the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council therefore resolved to make the report available to the heads of the affected agencies.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday titled, ‘Osinbajo to regulatory agencies: Everything we do to grow the economy, change lives of Nigerians depends on conducive business environment.’
According to the statement, the survey that returned damning verdicts on the unnamed agencies was conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
The statement read, “The Cost of Compliance Report which was presented to the council at its first virtual meeting of the year on Tuesday revealed persistent corruption, duplicity of functions, poor service orientation, and several anti-business disposition in some of the regulatory agencies.
“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, who presided over the meeting directed that CEOs and heads of such government regulatory agencies involved should be presented with the outcomes and interaction should take place regarding some of the worrying disclosures in the report of the survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, PwC.”
Akande also quoted the vice president as saying that if the environment, on account of regulatory authorities, was difficult or expensive, such that people werediscouraged to do business, then the nation was shooting itself in the foot.Describing them as human issues, Osinbajo said something serious must be done to address the issues.Speaking further about holding those responsible for the major lapses to account, the Vice President said, “I am in full support of holding our CEOs to account because they, in turn, must hold their staff to account. If there is systemic corruption, bribery and extortion, and nobody is held to account, there is a problem.”
Others present at the PEBEC meeting on Tuesday include the Ministers of Industry Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, the Vice Chairman of PEBEC; Finance, Budget and National Planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed; Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi; Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola; Budget and National Planning (State), Clem Abga; Special Adviser on Ease of Doing Business, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, and Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, representing the National Assembly among other top government officials and representatives from PwC.
