The House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on duplication of functions of government agencies, has expressed the desire to merge the Administrative State College of Nigeria (ASCON) with the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN).

Victor Danzaria, the chairman of the committee, said this in Abuja when the Director- General of ASCON, Cecilia Gayya, appeared before the committee on Thursday.

“There are agencies of government that do not have enabling act, 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,” he said.

He said the committee duty was to establish areas of mergers, synergies and justification of existence.

“The truth is even though you may have your enabling act, this committee will determine whether it should repeal, amend or take away the justification of the existence of your agencies.

“If the service delivery is not there, if Nigeria is not gaining from the agency, why are they existing,” he said.

He said the country would not continue to borrow money to maintain agencies that needed to be merged or taken away.

He said the consideration for merger was due to overlapping functions of both agencies, saying that it cost the government a lot of money to maintain agencies with similar responsibilities.

Ms Gayya, had earlier admitted that the agency’s functions overlapped with those of PSIN in areas of training, consultancy and research.

(NAN)