BUILDING ON EASE OF DOING BUSINES
The federal civil service is being repositioned for optimum service delivery, writes Ofem Uket
To strengthen federal government measures towards economic growth and recovery plan, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita and all serving federal permanent secretaries converged in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, to deliberate on a new civil service regime of probity, honesty and accountability and lend support to the anti-graft fight by President Muhammadu Buhari.
These efforts are geared towards a more distinct service delivery to stimulate efficient and effective means of serving the nation through public service reforms which are ongoing as earlier approved in 2017 by President Buhari. The topic of the day, ‘Public Procurement for Sustainable National Development’ is apt, considering the downplay of the public procurement act by corrupt public officers in the award of contracts.
Before the ongoing public service reforms in the country by the OHCSF, contracts are awarded to cronies, relatives and friends who hardly express interest to bid for such projects, but end up with letters of awards which are in turn sold to the original contractors who bidded for such projects. Ease of doing business as a strategic policy of the present administration is focusing on eliminating all forms of barriers created to undermine productivity and boost the nation’s economy especially in the manufacturing and industrial sub-sectors of our national life.
A productive political economy is reliant on an efficient corrupt-free public service that is dominated by transparency, probity and accountability. At the retreat in Calabar, the permanent secretaries are determined more than ever before to confront and tackle corruption, with all being resolute to take these messages back to their various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) for immediate and effective implementation to boost confidence and promote the integrity of government.
Presiding over the retreat, Oyo-Ita has warned permanent secretaries to refrain from corrupt practices and always ensure compliance with due process in the award and payment of contracts sums. She urged them to key into the momentum created by President Buhari in the fight against corruption to restore hope and dignity in the service, which of course is the only means to move away from a denigrated society to a confidence-building platform.
The head of service stated that institutions and individuals who seek to do business with the federal government should ensure they abide by extant rules and regulations for the purposes of transparency and openness. Oyo-Ita seized the event to hail the present administration for exiting the country out of recession and increasing Nigeria’s ranking in the World Bank ease of doing business index. She said: “Permit me to seize this opportunity to reiterate my vision of the EPIC (Efficient, Productive, Incorruptible and Citizen-centred) civil servant towards restoring hope and dignity to the service from the bottom up by reversing the current reputation for inefficiency, low productivity, corruption and insensitivity to the needs of the public. In this era of profound changes, civil servants must stand firm on due process. Institutions and individuals, who seek to do business with the government must commit to playing by the rules. This is the only way to achieve 100 per cent budget implementation. While it is true that civil servants may work under political pressure, we have a responsibility to resist attempts to subvert extant rules and regulations”.
The head of civil service also declared open a three-working- day retreat for members of the project management teams for the implementation of the OHCSF 2017-2020 Policy Strategy and Implementation Plan. The committee was formally inaugurated on December 7, 2017 to carry out detailed and a holistic public service reforms that has the capability to change the failures in the civil service over the years, address structural divisions ranging from delay in payment of allowances, upward salary review, engaging the private sector on effective collaboration, getting youths engaged in skill acquisitions programmes, amongst others.
The current reforms process is targeted at a rebirth and doing things right again. Convincingly, this is about the first time in the history of the Nigerian civil service a reform process is inaugurated followed up by a retreat that involves major stakeholders and the civil society groups with a definite time to submit its report for implementation.
The reforms would address the issues of delay and non-payment of pensions and gratuities; it will restructure the minds and behaviour of civil servants to be productive and efficient in service delivery and as well plans against pension bottlenecks after retirement. Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita said that the on-going reforms being carried out by the federal government would save the country over N120 billion over the next three years.
According to her, “The implementation of the strategy is expected to deliver N60-N120 billion savings from cleaning human resources data on IPPIS, N2.5 billion annual savings from digitising content and at least 25,000 civil servants trained through revamped core modules. “The new trajectory for the civil service after engagements with several relevant stakeholders culminated in the 2017-2020 strategy of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation which was launched in February, 2017,” she said. “This is a civil service reform that is homegrown. It is not brought to us by the World Bank or some foreign donors. It is a think-tank output which has resulted in a strategy document that will lift and push the service to a world class status.”
Oyo-Ita maintained that in order to reposition the federal civil service for optimum service delivery and in line with the current administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), there was urgent need to chart a new course to make the service efficient, productive, incorruptible and citizen-centered. She also said that the retreat was very crucial for the success of the FCSSIP and has been strategically designed to equip members of the PMTs with the requisite skills to deliver and actualise these expected outcomes.
She said the PMTs alongside private sector champions are expected to facilitate and drive dayto- day implementation of the eight priority areas of the FCSSIP which include civil service automation, Integrated Personnel and Pay Roll Information System (IPPIS), performance management and culture change.
The Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategy in the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation, Mr. Ndubuisi Osuji, expressed appreciation to the head of service for her commitment to reform the civil service to enhance capacity. He reaffirmed the commitment of the OHCSF in driving reforms in the service, stressing that the office of the head of service of the federation is committed to repositioning the public service sector for better performance and to provide high quality services to Nigerians and foreign investors.