INVESTING IN CONSTANT INNOVATION

Democracy day presidential broadcast buoys the federal civil service, writes Ofem Uket

Federal Civil Servants numbering 25, 000, a reasonable percentage of the entire federal work force in the country will undergo various forms of capacity building training in different sectors of the nation’s economy to advance and improve in the overall performance of staff in line with the present administration’s commitment to change the process of governance.

The training scheme will afford workers the rights to their work condition which was denied in the past, but favourably reviewed by the current leadership of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation as part of the ongoing reform procedures with deliberate plan to create a new and sustainable work place environment.

Apparently, when you match towards greatness in life, you are taking up more responsibilities and major sacrifices are expected from both the employer and the employee. ‘To whom much is given much is expected’ is a natural phenomenon that is applied in all strata and sphere of life.

During the Democracy Day broadcast to commemorate his three years in office, President Muhammadu Buhari had noted with gratitude that about N200 billion was saved by the present administration through the elimination of ghost workers in the Federal Civil Service.

The presidential address also noted that the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has realised billions of naira saved from maintenance fee payable to banks. The address further stressed that the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit set up with a mandate to validate controls, assess risks, prune personnel costs, ensure compliance with public financial management reforms has helped to identify and remove over 52,000 ghost workers from the federal government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) payroll.

However, the consequence of ghost workers is usually an over bloated public service, which accounts for illicit increase in wages, and forcing on government avoidable expenditure in the context of the yearly appropriations and budgetary provisions.

At the moment, government is confident in the performance of the payroll system, though regular and routine monitoring of worker’s nominal roll is carried out to identify areas of fraud, and the overall transparency of the payment plans within the public service.

Before the public pronouncements of Mr. President on the excellent performance of the Office of the Head of Civil Service, in fighting corruption, the current leadership has expressed readiness to address core areas of competence and lack in the public service, the result is therefore the savings through the cleaning up of fraudulent database that comprised of ghost workers.

Over and above the civil service, the Head of Service has an inclusive programme of action that has encouraged private participa- tion, collaboration and partnership with government agencies in major sectors of the economy to provide professional experience and relevant skills to enhance productivity and sustainable growth.

Therefore, the reforms have taken care of industry players in the private sector, with great expectation to draw creativity and technical competence that would be applied in major areas of needs.

One other core area of score is institutionalising performance management- based system, piloting tools and introducing non-monetary recognition and the launch of a salary review of the civil service as a first step to enhance the value proposition of civil servants.

Speaking at strategic interactive sessions of the public reforms sensitisation summits and assemblies held in the past, the HOS of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita declared that the federal civil service in Nigeria has continued to match towards greatness within the last two years.

She said, in order to reposition the service as an effective machinery of government for improved service delivery, the current leadership of the office of the head of the civil service of the federation (OHCSF) under her and in line with the current administration of President Buhari in its change agenda and Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017 – 2020, Nigeria has charted a new course for the service intended to make the service efficient and productive.

According to her, at the instance of a presidential intervention, her office received the support of African Initiative for Governance (AIG) and through the engagement of the services of McKinsey developed a clear communicable action plan for transforming the Nigeria Federal Civil Service. “From the time we constituted and inaugurated the PMTs, we have made progress and remained focused on ensuring successful delivery of the project. Various retreats were organised and strategically designed to equip members of the PMTs with the requisite skills and knowledge to deliver the expected outcomes of the strategy,” she said.

On the public sector, the presidential broadcast was inspiring to accelerate the process of giving the Nigerian worker a new lease of life around performance and job satisfaction, especially at a time when the public acknowledged that the reform scheme is open enough to attract the attention that it is being given right now.

Though the journey so far has been commendable, a lot needs to be done, which should focus more in strengthening the capacity of personnel and allowing competence, incorruptible and sustainable good conduct to thrive.

President Buhari has therefore declared that public sector reforms should be a priority not only to government, but the private sector in the areas of collaboration and partnership, drawing expertise and experience from professionals outside the civil service.