Tag Archives: civil service

Osinbajo unveils three-year strategic plan for Civil Service

Posted on by
12

The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, tuesday launched the strategic document for the Nigerian Civil Service from 2017-2019 aimed at increasing the quality of public service delivery, leading to the provision of a more lasting trajectory for the progressive development of the country.

The policy in four broad spectrum and enunciated by the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoS), Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, was unveiled at the Banquet Hall of the State House.

Osinbajo called for a holistic approach in the improvement of the lot of the civil servants in a Change environment, adding that Nigerian public workers have historically offered robust contributions in the development of major sectors of the country.

“The civil servants pioneered and implemented some of the most robust and community-driven programmes in the history of our country. We have to do something that will improve their lot,’’ Osinbajo said.

He expressed optimism that the plan anchored on four strategic goals, would result in the development of the country if addressed while also offering to be a part of the small group that would transform the country.
The strategic plan, according to Oyo-Ita, which has clearly defined objectives and requisite initiatives for its actualisation is in consonance with the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms.

The four goals include: EPIC, which aims to develop and institutionalise an efficient, productive, incorruptible and citizen-centred culture in the civil service; ECM: design and implement an enterprise content management system; develop entrepreneurial culture and commercial orientation in the civil service and to improve the welfare and benefit packages for public workers.

She said the inculcation of entrepreneurial and commercial culture in public servants would transform the service from being perceived as cost centres to revenue earners, saying that the MDAs would become idea generation powerhouses that would complement the private sectors in creating business opportunities for government.
Meanwhile the Chairman, Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG), Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, has expressed his passion for public sector leadership and change initiative championed by the Presidency and HoS.

He pledged to work with the relevant stakeholders towards enabling the actualisation of these aspirations.
Aig-Imokhuede lamented that the narrative associated with the public sector is that of one dominated by poor performance, stagnation and self-interest in contrast to the true words of excellence, achievement, legacy that hold true in the private sector and civil society.

“These labels are borne out of the unfortunate reality that our country’s public sector is not efficient, not responsive and is becoming synonymous with non-performance. That is the experience of the ordinary Nigerian interacting with the Nigerian public service,” Aig-Imoukhuede said.

He added that at the root of so many of Nigeria’s problems are public servants who are unable to impact and transform the lives of the citizens despite the immense power of public policy within their grasp adding that the public sector in Nigeria is the first line of defence against most of the problems that have prevented the country from attaining its long anticipated potential.

‘’I have, through the AIG, which is a catalyst for public sector transformation, elected to join this crusade for a transformed civil service. I am committing my time and resources towards the dream of a Nigeria where our public sector will match that of Singapore; where Nigeria’s public servants will deliver effective, transformative change in the lives of the citizenry, using the power of public policy,” he said.

Corruption in civil service, a nation’s greatest tragedy — Osinbajo

Posted on by
1

The acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has said a situation where privileged civil servants subvert the system for personal gains at the expense of the poor is the greatest tragedy that a nation could experience.

Osinbajo spoke at the inaugural Quarterly Civil Service Lecture Series with the theme, “Civil Service in a Change Environment: The Change is Now”, held at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the nation was faced with what he called a monumental tragedy when civil servants used the opportunity of the position they hold for self enrichment.

He said, “The power to do good or evil lies with a few people who form what we refer to as our civil service.

“When some of such elite see the opportunity as one for self enrichment by corrupt practices, then the nation faces a monumental tragedy.

“There is no excuse anywhere in a nation where the majority are still poor and are struggling to make a living that anyone who has the benefit of good education and good fortune of a job in the civil service should subvert that service for personal gains.

“I think it is the greatest tragedy that a nation can experience.”

Osinbajo told the civil servants that they were sometimes being referred to as “evil servants.”

He, however, urged them to take heart, saying the best professions were usually the most criticised.

“Despite the criticisms that civil servants are subjected to, I am sure that you know that sometimes civil servants are described as evil servants, but you must take heart, the best profession are usually the most criticised.

“But I must say that the wholesome privilege of public service is very easily abused or taken for granted.

“The public service elite represent, as we have seen, the most important factor in mass development,” he added.

Osinbajo regretted that the system, which had firmly stood against injustices and high-handedness that characterised the military era, when leadership was mainly by promulgation of decrees, suddenly came crashing when civil servants began to see their functions as means to achieve personal aggrandisement, rather than the common good of the Nigerian state.

He noted that more often than not, civil servants used their positions to further their personal gains and left the masses impoverished.

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo Ita, in her lecture, said the time had come for Nigerians to stop lamenting over the foregone glorious days of the civil service.

She said the service was possibly a victim of the overall malaise bedeviling the entire Nigerian society.

She blamed the inability to clearly articulate its vision as being responsible for the decline of the service.

Also on Tuesday, while inaugurating the Private Sector Advisory Group for the Sustainable Development Goals at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, Osinbajo said so much corruption was prevalent among the nation’s political, religious and private sector elite because of the high premium placed on wealth in the country.

He said the elite had decided to view wealth as a measure of worth, hence the large scale corruption in the system.

He said some nations were doing better than nations who attach importance to wealth because such nations decided that the value of human beings was in their contribution to the society.

Osinbajo said, “We have decided as an elite in this country that wealth is a measure of worth. It is a decision we made consciously or unconsciously. The political elite have decided that wealth is a measure of worth and that is why you find so much corruption among the political elite. Even the religious elite believe that it is a blessing of God.

“There are some societies that have decided that the value of human beings is in their contributions to the society. Those societies, of course, have done better than those who have decided that wealth, no matter how it was obtained, is a measure of worth.

“I think it is important if our elite decide that dealing with poverty is worth the while and that it will measure whether or not we are serious about our society.”

The Acting President said there was enormous responsibility placed upon the elite to do something about the millions of the extremely poor in their midst.

The responsibility, he said, should not be taken lightly since that was how they would be measured at the end of their lives.

“At the end of our lives, the question that will be asked is, what is the impact that we make on people’s lives? Nobody will be measured by how much money we made or the positions we held.

“A lot of our people in this country hang their hopes on us. They look up to us and believe we can do it and despite all the failures and the false starts, our people especially the poor and the vulnerable still believe that these elite will and can deliver.

“Let us therefore take this as a personal responsibility to our people to do something profound that will make a huge difference in the lives of our people.”

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, described the inauguration of the PSAG as a landmark event, saying Nigeria was the first United Nation member-state to do so.

 

Source: www.thecable.ng

Reps fault Federal Civil Service recruitment exercise

Posted on by
1

The House of Representatives has called on the Federal civil service commission to, without further delay, declare publicly, the number of vacancies available and distribute some according to States in accordance with the Federal character principles.

The call, made yesterday, follows a motion on the urgent need to investigate the unwholesome practices involving the Federal civil service commission with respect to the on going recruitment exercise announced by the commission, sponsored by Hon. Henry Archibong and Mustapha Bala Dawaki.

Hon. Archibong who expressed concern over the inability of Nigerians to access the recruitment portal, disclosed that the portal uploaded by the Commission is non functional as unemployed Nigerians have been unable to apply for various positions.

“Thousands of qualified Nigerians have over the past days been trying to apply for various positions advertised by the commission via the portal but are unable to due to an ineffective portal.

“By uploading a non functional recruitment portal, the commission is deliberately denying thousands of suitably qualified Nigerians who wish to contribute their quota to the service of their fatherland through gainful employment into the civil service, thereby subjecting them to hardship.

The non functional portal according to him, “is a ploy by the commission to come up with names of friend and the children of the high and mighty in the society as the only ones that applied for the employment thereby depriving the children of the poor and the Federal Government of willing and qualified hands to move the country forward”.

The lawmakers noted that the action of the commission is against the change agenda of the present administration, principle of equity, justice, fairness, transparency and above all, the principles of federal character as enshrined in Section 14(3) and (4) of the constitution.

The House also directed its Committee on Federal Character to investigate the practice of the commission and ensure a 24 hour accessibility of the recruitment portal for intending applicants and extend the deadline of the submission

EFCC Uncovers 37,395 Ghost Workers In Federal Civil Service- Magu

Posted on by
2

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Tuesday that the Federal Government had uncovered 37,395 ghost workers on the Federal Civil Service payroll and that the government lost about N1 billion to them.

The EFCC’s acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu, made the disclosure during an anti-corruption sensitization programme organized by the commission for staff of works and housing sectors.

Mr. Magu said that apart from the widespread procurement frauds in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the issue of ghost workers was a source of serious concern to the commission.

“EFCC has uncovered 37,395 ghost workers in the Federal Civil Service and investigation is still going on.

“Our investigations have so far revealed that the Federal Government has lost close to N1 billion to these ghost workers.

The figure will definitely increase as we unravel more ghost workers buried deep in Federal Civil Service payrolls.’’

Mr. Magu also explained that the commission had established a Procurement Fraud Unit in order to handle the increasing number of petitions relating to violations of the Public Procurement Laws.

He, therefore, advised civil servants to avoid any act that was in breach of public procurement, warning that violators risked terms of imprisonment and dismissal from service.

Credit: PremiumTimes

Some Retirees Still Collect N2000 As Pension In Adamawa – NUP

Posted on by
1

Comrade Umar Mairiga, Secretary, Adamawa chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), on Tuesday in Yola said that some pensioners still collect N2,000 monthly as pension in the state.

 

Mairiga told newsmen that “Adamawa is the state where you find the least paid pensioners in the country; we still have pensioners that collect N2000, N3000 and N4000 as pension”.
He said that the development was as a result of lack of compliance with the pension law that said government should increase pension by five per cent every five years and whenever there was an increase in workers’ salaries. “There was salary increase in 2003 but we did not benefit; there was another in 2005, but we were not captured. We also lost out in the minimum wage increase of 2010.
“Some of our members, out of frustration, vowed not to show up for the ongoing verification exercise, saying they would rather forfeit their N2000 or N3000 monthly pension”, Mairiga said. He urged the new APC-led administration of Gov. Muhammadu Jibrilla to make a difference by looking into the plight of pensioners in the state as they had been neglected for years by past administrations.

 

Mairiga said that retirees in the state were being owed about N8 billion accumulated pension and gratuity arrears, and urged the government take steps, such as allocating between N200million to N500 million monthly for the clearing of such arrears. ” We won’t mind even if it is N10 million monthly that is dedicated to the settlement of the arrears, particularly those of junior civil servants whose gratuity is between N400,000 and N800,000.
“Those category of retirees have no houses of their own; they need the money to erect a mud huts in their villages and wait for the end. ” It is not proper to deny retirees their right when it matters most; every able worker today is a potential retiree, hence the need for all stakeholders to start taking pension matters more seriously”, Mairiga said.

 

Credit : Vanguard

FG Approves 2015 Civil Service Promotion Examination

Posted on by
1

Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, Acting Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS), has approved the conduct of the 2015 promotion examination for officers on salary grade levels 06-13.

This is contained in a statement issued by Alhaji Mohammed Manga, Assistant Director (Media Relations), in the office of the HOS in Abuja on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the examination is scheduled to take place on Dec. 17, at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN).

It added that a circular signed by the Permanent Secretary, Career Management in the office of the HOS, Mr Innocent Ogbonnaya, had already been issued to all government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

According to the circular, eligible officers on Grade Levels 06-13, depending on the grade level, must have spent a minimum of two or three years on their present grade by Jan. 1, 2015.

Eligible candidates were advised to attend the screening and accreditation beginning from Dec. 14, at the Public Service Institute of Nigerian (PSIN), from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

According to the statement, all eligible officers are expected to come with one passport size photograph, the original and one photocopy each of staff identity card and letter of first appointment.

They are also to bring along with them, evidence of confirmation of appointment, birth certificate or declaration of age and letter of transfer, conversion, absorption or regularisation, if applicable.

Other documents required for the exercise, the circular said, include letters of last two promotions and academic credentials.

Credit: Vangard

Mukhtar Jarmajo: The Imperatives Of Effective Civil Service To Development

Posted on by
1

The primary purpose and responsibility of government was to administer public trust as to secure the lives and property of the people and ensure the rapid development of our societies. To achieve these, the constitution of the federation of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides for a doctrine of separation of powers, which further puts government into three arms-the legislative, judicial and executive arms and charged them with particular functions.

The legislative arm was charged with the onus to check the excesses of the executive arm through legislation that details oversight function and appropriations. For the implementation of a policy, the executive has to present it to the legislature as a bill to be passed into law. And when a bill is passed to law it is sent to the chief executive for assent. For any decision at the legislature, a two-thirds quorum is needed.

At the judicial arm, the constitution is interpreted to resolve disputes whenever there is one, between the legislative and executive arms. And at the executive arm, government policies and programmes are defined as well as implemented. This arm is further put into two branches- the council of ministers/commissioners (as the case may be), which is the Executive Council and the Civil Service.

The executive council constitutes politicians who expectedly are in the know of the package of promises made during campaigns by the chief executive and are also competent enough to be their reincarnate at the ministries or departments they head. It also has a secretary to government as a non-executive member. At EXCO meetings, Memos from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) relating advise to the executives on how best to initiate and implement the policies of the government of the day are presented and discussed. The EXCO is not a Tender`s Board for approval and award of contracts and as such must not be made to look like one.

At the behest of the executive council the civil service operates. Its primary onus was to advise the chief executive on policy initiation and facilitate its efficient and effective implementation. Thus its imperatives as far as the smooth running of government as an institution cannot be over stretched. In the civil service there is what may best be referred to as nomenclature where civil servants are identified based on Cadre for instance, Administrative or Teaching Cadres and Grade Level for instance, GL1 Step 1. Whilst the former deals with the professional background of a staff, the latter deals with their seniority.

Seniority in the civil service is not determined by the highest qualification of a staff but their experience. The most senior staff in the civil service is Permanent Secretary who by virtue of the position is the chief accounting officer of the ministry or department they hold sway. A Permanent Secretary is answerable to the minister/commissioner in their ministry and the Head of Civil service alike.

The entire civil service is manned by a Head of Civil service who by virtue of the position is a member of the executive council. The Head of Civil Service`s main job is to work closely with the chief executive to see to it that the effectiveness and efficiency of the civil service so desired is being achieved.

Effectiveness is all about producing favorable results; hitting the target. In the civil service, two resources- human and financial are imperative. Thus for effectiveness, these resources should bring the desired results. And efficiency is all about the use of the resources to achieve the desired results including specifications for instance standards or time frame -productive use of the resources. In non-mathematical language therefore, effectiveness and efficiency are only achievable through ensuring discipline in the civil service.

Discipline here refers to adhering to public service rules and ethics whilst dedicating self to the service of God and humanity. It just means exhibiting commitment, dedication and willingness in the service and expecting blessings from God as the only reward.

Now, given the aforesaid, it is only clear that the civil service is the engine room of government. So, either directly or indirectly, the level of its effectiveness and efficiency has considerable degree of impact on the entire government as an institution and by extension the development of the society in general. Thus a nation that is to develop into an El Dorado of infrastructures direly needs an effective civil service that will not only provide workforce to government as an institution but also tell the executive the sincere truth whilst convincing it accept and use the advise given to it.

And on the contrary, it needs not a politicized civil service where recruitment of staff, appointments, promotions and postings are done with ulterior motives. It needs not a civil service of indiscipline where corruption, dereliction of duty, Absent With-Out Leave (AWOL) and most seriously, incompetence are the order of the day. It needs not a civil service that is in a state of decay and in the condition of huggermugger.

Jarmajo is on Twitter: @mukhtarjarmajo

Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates

Buhari warns civil servants to shun corruption or leave service

Posted on by
1

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday in Abuja warned civil servants to shun corruption or be ready to leave the civil service.

 

The Permanent Secretary in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Alhaji Muhammed Bukar, said President Buhari gave the warning when he was briefed on the activities of the General Services Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF).

 

Bukar said Buhari emphasised the importance of strict adherence to the rules and laws guiding public service.

 

“We have received a mandate to work harder. He has given us a very strong warning that change has come and every public servant has to sit up. We will give our best to support the government.

 

?“We told him what we have been doing in support of the government’s policies and the president promised to give us the support and the political will to do our job better,’’ He said.

 

Bukar, who led five other permanent secretaries in the SGF Office during the meeting, said they also briefed the president on the Centenary Project.

 

Bukar disclosed that a former Head of State, retired Gen. Andulsalami Abubakar, who is the Chairman, Centenary Limited Board, would brief Buhari on the project on Friday.

 

According to him, “no kobo of Federal Government went into the building of Centenary City.’’

 

(PM News)

Jonathan’s Last-minute Appointments Tears Civil Service Apart

Posted on by
1

THE crisis in the federal civil service appeared to have worsened with career civil servants protesting against the absorption of 530 aides and cronies of former President Goodluck Jonathan into the civil service in the last days of the past administration.

The new recruits into the service were also said to have been installed in high positions, from assistant directors upward. Already, six deputy directors in the federal civil service are in court to protest against the manner the last promotion examination to directors’ level was handled by the Federal Civil Service Commission.

The FCSC released the list of newly-promoted directors in October 2014.

The six aggrieved deputy directors – Dr. John Magbadelo, Mrs. Ada Ihechukwu Madubuike, Mrs.
Ganiat Ayodele, Mr. Olusegun Oginni, Mrs. Janet Ayorinde and Mr. Otajele Musa – filed an action at the National Industrial Court on March 26, 2015 to question the exercise.

Most senior civil servants are said to be unhappy with the FCSC, a situation which is said to have been made worse by the Jonathan recruits into the service.

Sources told The PUNCH in Abuja on Sunday that between the time Jonathan lost the presidential election of April 11 and the May 29 handover date, 530 persons from different backgrounds had their appointments into the civil service regularised.

A director in one of the sensitive ministries told our correspondent that the FCSC, through ‘‘crafty schemes’’, brought into the civil service “numerous aides of the former President Jonathan, Vice President Namadi Sambo and ministers.

The director, who asked not to be named, said, “These new recruits are placed on very high grades as assistant directors, deputy directors, and directors.

It was gathered from a reliable source that their appointments were made through a “regularisation window’’, which the FCSC backdated to December, 2014.

“Through regularisation, fresh graduate appointees were placed on Grade Level 12 instead of Grade Level 08, while some others were upgraded to very high levels in defiance of extant rules. We now have letters of regularisation flying around the ministries.

“No fewer than 530 people are being regularised into the service from different backgrounds, including unscheduled private enterprises. These atrocities are responsible for the depletion of vacancies, which ought to be utilised for the promotion of deserving serving officers in the federal civil service.”

Another aggrieved director in one of the parastatals under the Presidency said that the FCSC had, in the last six years, been under serious pressure by ranking politicians, who insisted on giving jobs in the civil service as rewards to their cronies.

The director cited the case of one political appointee, who was allegedly moved from Grade Level 09 to Grade level 16, and subsequently moved three months after to the post of director on Salary Grade Level 17.

He said this was just one of the many recent irregularities perpetrated by the FCSC, “while the chairman of the FCSC, Deaconess Joan Ayo, keeps saying that lack of vacancy was responsible for the non-promotion of most deputy directors who passed last year’s promotion examination.”

“Just anybody with the right connection or big purse can be promoted or transferred to the post of a director in the civil service today. These transfers are being done in violation of the extant public service rules, which the FCSC published and circulated to all government offices,” the official alleged.

Many of the directors, who spoke to our correspondent on the alleged rot in the civil service, called for the review of both the promotion exercise and “illegal” recruitment into the high cadre in the government offices.

But the FCSC has denied the allegation, saying it never recruited illegally into the civil service.

The Assistant Director of Press, FCSC, Dr. Joel Oruche, said the allegations of illegal recruitment for political reasons were all lies.

Oruche said, “At no time did the commission employ aides of former President, Vice President, ministers or any key political figure in the Jonathan’s government, either as a parting gift or in compliance with a directive from the above-mentioned political figures.

“The FCSC, in the discharge of its mandate, has put in place, internal checks and balances in the process of appointments and promotion. This guarantees transparent process that checkmates activities and antics of fraudsters, who are in the business of issuing fake appointment letters.

“For the avoidance of doubts, FCSC begins appointments only when the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation has forwarded vacancies to it. These declared vacancies are shared among the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. Appointments into the vacant positions are processed by honourable commissioners representing respective states.

“After processing the appointments by commissioners, all appointment letters are checked and signed by the director in charge of recruitment and appointment while the Office of the Permanent Secretary puts the commission’s seal on the letters.”

However, the Secretary-General of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, Mr. Alade Lawal, confirmed that there had been rampant cases of illegal recruitment into the civil service.

Lawal said the FCSC had bastardised the recruitment process into the service on the spurious ground that it was acting on directive from the Presidency to grant waiver to some states.

He said, “But the commission cannot hide under a Presidential waiver to recruit incompetent and unqualified persons into the federal public service and impose them as seniors on those with higher qualifications, experience and competence. We have never had it so bad.

“One of the negative results of this ill-advised policy is that directors, who have served the country meritoriously for decades, cannot rise to the peak of their careers as all manner of persons are recruited into the service to take over top positions, including that of permanent secretaries and general managers.”

The ASCSN secretary lamented that graduates with eight years post-qualification experience were being drafted into the public service on grade level 16 or 17 because they have connections with top politicians.

“These illegal recruits are then made permanent secretaries after about two or three years. This is very unfortunate as it demoralises dedicated officers who no longer see any future in the service. The ASCSN has engaged the FCSC on the vexed issue and all indications point to the fact that the recruitments were deliberately made,” Lawal stated.

He also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps to ensure that the FCSC abide by the public service rules, establishments circulars, scheme of service, and its guidelines on appointment, promotion and discipline in respect of recruitment into the public service.

“If urgent step is not taken to reverse this trend of illegal recruitment into the public service, the system may collapse and the government will not be able to effect the type of change it wants in the polity since the public service is the engine room that oils the wheels of government.”