*Photo: Dr Yemi-Esan*
The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation ( OHCSF) is working towards the full digitlisation and open government across the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr (Mrs) Folasade Yemi-Esan stated this in Abuja on Tuesday on the occasion of the Media Parley to commemorate the 2023 Civil Service Week.
The theme of this year’s Civil Service Week Celebration is “Digitalization of Work Processes in the Public Service: A Gateway to Efficient Resource Utilization and National Development”.
Dr Yemi-Esan disclosed that the OHCSF was also poised to achieve a minimum of 50% functional official email addresses created in the Service by 2025; minimum of 40% Automation of Ministries’ work processes; minimum of 60% access to government’s services online and the provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalization policy.
She noted that as against previous Civil Service Week, that of 2023 was preceded with a media parley in recognition of the fact that besides
providing the platform to interact with Media Executives and Partners, the Media Parley “enables us give significant updates and insights into how we fared as a service undergoing transformation.”
While reeling out the achievements of the OHCSF, Dr Yemi-Esan recalled that during the 2022 Civil Service Week, the Office formally presented the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025) document also called FCSSIP 25.
“The document,” according to her, ” is designed to put in place, mechanisms for the re-engineering of the Service for increased productivity, quality service delivery and to remain professional and globally competitive.”
She expressed satisfaction that staff training which used to be regarded as a ‘welfare package ‘ for a lucky few has now been institutionalised in order to have a better equipped workforce and
achieve better service delivery.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation equally spoke on the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS), the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Scheme and other wide ranging issues relating to the Service.
Read her full speech below:
TEXT OF THE BRIEFING BY DR. FOLASADE YEMI-ESAN, CFR HEAD OF THE CIVIL SERVICE OF THE FEDERATION ON THE OCCASION OF THE MEDIA PARLEY TO COMMEMORATE THE 2023 CIVIL SERVICE WEEK HELD ON TUESDAY 25TH JULY, 2023 IN ABUJA PROTOCOL
Highly Esteemed Gentlemen of the Press, I warmly welcome you to this interactive session and thank you for honouring our invitation.
To begin with, I wish to profoundly appreciate the constant support the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation receives from you, highly esteemed media partners and all the sacrifices you make to ensure our mandate is achieved and to keep Nigerians aware of the modest reforms of government being implemented through the Office.
2. As against the previous order of activities to commemorate the Civil Service Week, you would observe that according to the schedule of events, the 2023 Civil Service Week commences with the Media Parley. This is informed by the recognition of the fact that besides
providing the platform to interact with our Media Executives and Partners, the Media Parley preceding other weeklong events, enables us give significant updates and insights into how we fared as a service undergoing transformation. Hence, the major take-home for the office is the useful feedback we get from you at this forum.
3. Gentlemen of the Press, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, the Theme of this year’s Civil Service Week Celebration is “Digitalization of Work Processes in the Public Service: A Gateway to Efficient Resource Utilization and National Development”. It has been carefully chosen in recognition of the multi-dimensional applications of digital technology in e-learning, information storage, automation, social connectivity and particularly e-Government.
4. We all will recall that during the 2022 Civil Service Week, the Office formally presented the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025) document also called FCSSIP 25. The document is designed to put in place, mechanisms for the re-engineering of the Service for increased productivity, quality service delivery and to remain professional and globally competitive.
FCSSIP 25, as you may be aware, derives its thrust from six (6) thematic areas. These are: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. Capability Building and Talent Management; Performance Management System (PMS); IPPIS – Human Resource; Innovation; Digitalisation; and Staff Welfare It is important to also state that FCSSIP25 has a well-defined governance structure for its implementation.
FCSSIP25 PILLARS: THE JOURNEY SO FAR 7. CAPABILITY BUILDING AND TALENT MANAGEMENT: Under the first Pillar of FCSSIP 25, it is needful to note that prior to the successes recorded, the service was confronted by the following circumstances:
• Training of officers used to be seen as a welfare package; • Training was not seen as an opportunity for self-development;
• Training was not based on Needs Assessment and skills gaps; and
• Opportunities were not provided for talents in the Service to utilise skills acquired from training etc
8. In addressing the aforementioned anomalies through the present implementation of the Strategy, the Office achieved the following: SMAT-P i. Under the Structured Mandatory Assessment-based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and following the successful conduct of Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and development of Standard modules across the three levels of Basic, Intermediate and advanced, the Office has trained 6007 officers on Salary Grade Levels (SGLs) 07-17.
This comprises:
• Pilot Training for 1,546 Officers on SGL 07-17 in 2019;
• 159 Officers on SGL 07-10 trained by virtual means in March, 2021;
• 1,680 Directorate Level Officers trained with advanced SMAT-P Modules in May, 2022;
• 1,692 officers on SGL 12–14 trained with Intermediate SMAT-P Modules in September, 2022;
• 600 Basic Level Officers on SGL 07-10 trained in December, 2022;
while • 1,000 Basic Level Officers on SGL 07-10 are already batched for hybrid training which is to commence in August 2023.
LEAD-P ii. The Office has also Integrated strategic talent sourcing as part of learning and development in the Service.
In this regard, the following have been achieved:
• The Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) has been Institutionalised;
• After a training period of 7months, the 1st Batch of 118 LEAD-P Officers Graduated in May, 2022 and were deployed to strategic Departments/Units in MDAs;
• LEAD-P graduates are currently being mentored by Permanent Secretaries;
• Selection of 107 Batch 2, LEAD-P interns was concluded in December 2022 and they completed the 4 weeks Training which held from 23rd January – 17th February, 2023;
• Rotational Posting of the 107 Batch 2 LEAD-P participants to core MDAs and Agencies was completed in May 2023.
INDUCTION TRAINING iii. Furthermore, the Induction of newly employed and deployed Officers has now been prioritised. Under this programme: It will be recalled that an induction training kit was developed in collaboration with the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL-DFID) and conveyed to the MDAs in 2018 to facilitate the continuous sensitization of newly recruited staff and those transferred or posted to the MDAs; Now the office Developed the online modules which were completed in May, 2023; and Activities for the establishment of the online platform is ongoing.
In addition, induction training for Permanent Secretaries and other political appointees has been introduced.
iv. Furthermore, the Office is Leveraging technology for Learning and Development.
• It Introduced Computer-Based Test for Combined Promotion (COMPRO) Examination. The first of its kind was conducted in collaboration with the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in 2022.
v. Training for Conversion to Planning Officer Cadre This is a stop-gap initiative aimed at boosting the manpower/competency level within the planning cadre, considering the relevance of planning to National Development.
In this light:
• The 1st Batch of 214 Planning Officers was trained in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) and graduated in 2021;
• The Planning officers have been posted to different MDAs; and
• The Federal Civil Service Commission has approved their redesignation as Planning Officers;
In addition:
• Letters have been issued to the officers reflecting the new designation;
• Documentation of all redesignated officers has been completed; and
• Posting of the officers in their new designations is to be released in August, 2023 vi. Coordination of MDAs’ Training Programmes. •
The office has successfully attended to all training requests from MDAs. Progress Report on the Year 2022 Approved Training Programmes indicates that over 16,000 officers were trained at Core MDA level.
• Also, officers are being granted approval for Study Leave to undertake various courses of study within and outside the country.
It is pertinent to point out that the trainings are properly structured and run at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN) which has brought about improved quality of MDA trainings.
9. Going Forward, in the Implementation of the First Pillar of FCSSIP25, the Office is focused on achieving the following milestones:
• 100 percent of officers trained on SMAT-P by 2025 • 500 Future Leaders (Presidential Cohorts) identified, trained and deployed strategically Service-wide by 2025; and • induction trainings conducted online 100 percent; PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (PMS)
10. Performance Management System in the civil service is work in Progress. However, the concept is not new to government. As you are aware, Performance Contracts and Agreements were being used by government before now. Also, some agencies of Government have begun implementing an ideal Performance Management System and are at different stages of evolution.
The Government of Nigeria is guided by Development Plans over the years which are developed through multi-stakeholder consultation and participation.
11. You may wish to recall that the objectives of the previous Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) System in the Public Service though noble, had a defective framework which impeded its successful implementation. Notable among the limitations of the previous employee appraisal system was the use of a Paper-based evaluation instrument and the absence of a Quality Management Standard.
The Office is also mandated to ensure alignment of employee PMS and institutional performance management. Based on the Presidential directive of 2021, the Office adopted the Whole of Government approach in implementing PMS such that PMS implementation is cascaded as follows:
• National Developmental Goals as prioritized by government
• MDA Goals & Objectives
• Departmental Job Objectives
• Division, Branches/Units & Sections Objectives; and
• Individual/Employee Job Objectives.
It would also be recalled that Executive Order 12, on Improving Performance Management, Coordination & Implementation of Presidential Priorities of the Federal Government of Nigeria is also in place. The goal is to institutionalize a culture of accountability & transparency in service delivery.
12. In the implementation of PMS under FCSSIP 25, the Office has been able to achieve the following:
• A fully functional Performance Management Department (PMD) to operationalise PMS Servicewide;
• The Office of the Head of Service supervised the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in MDAs;
• The Office also achieved the ISO 9001:2015 Certification as a first step for ensuring all other MDAs acquire ISO Certification for their services; and
• Furthermore, in September 2022, the PMD released the first PMS Policy and Guidelines (documents) for use in the Service.
The documents are to provide the framework on which the new PMS will work. The documents clearly state roles and responsibilities of all identified role players in the new system;
In addition • On 17th December, 2022, the Office held a stakeholder meeting involving Chairman and Commissioners of Federal Civil Service Commission, all federal Permanent Secretaries and some Directors in the Federal Civil Service. • On 21st December, 2022, the Office of the Head of Service of the Federation released a circular directing the implementation of the new PMS in the Service effective 1st January, 2023; • Eight (8) MDAs have concluded work on Performance Planning and Contracting for officers;
• Also, a standardized Job Description Template was released for all MDAs to adopt; and • Over 1,900 officers service-wide have been trained on PMS Some of the Most recent activities under this Pillar include the: • Conduct of PMS Retreat for Permanent Secretaries on 15th April, 2023; • Conduct of PMS Workshop for Directors, Human Resource Management (HRM) and Planning, Research & Statistics (PRS) from Wednesday 3rd Friday 5th May, 2023.
Moreover, the Office • Conducted a PMS Workshop for Deputy Directors Appointment, Promotion & Discipline (APD) and Planning from Tuesday 9th – Thursday, 11th May, 2023; • Trained Selected members of the MDAs’ PMS Implementation Core Teams from Tuesday 6th – Friday 9th June, 2023. • Sensitized MDAs through visits by the staff of the PMD to conduct the exercise; • Ensured the roll out of the PMS IT Solution which began in July 2023; and • Organised Hand-holding exercise for supervisors of the OHCSF Strategic Plan which began on Tuesday, 4th June, 2023. 10
13. To consolidate on the progress made in driving the new Performance Management System in the service, the Office plans to do the following: • Deploy Performance Management System (PMS) for the attainment of national goals by 2025; • The attainment of 80% increase in accountability by employee and compliance to rules and regulations by 2025; and • Ensure that all MDAs are ISO 9001:2015 Certified. Other targets include: • Training of key role players in core MDAs, on the use of PMS I.T solution will be done by first week of August, 2023 • Subsequently, Performance Planning, Review, Appraisal by core MDAs will be done in line with the PMS Guidelines within the approved timelines, beginning from 2024 when APER will seize to be used as an appraisal instrument; • The Office also plans to Professionalise Human Resource Management in the Federal Service by 2024; and • Implement Performance related pay system in the Federal Service by 2025.
INTEGRATED PERSONNEL & PAYROLL INFORMATION SYSTEM (IPPIS) – Human Resource
14. On the third Pillar of FCSSIP 25, the Office of the Head of Service has been working towards the implementation of HR Module of IPPIS with a view to bridging the identified gaps in the system. As you are aware, prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedeviled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers etc.
15. Consequent upon the identified loopholes in the IPPIS, the Office introduced control mechanisms. Notable among others was the inauguration of a Committee on Enrolment of Newly Recruited Civil Servants on the 1st of March, 2021.
16. Hence, this and other initiatives in accelerating the roll-out of the HR Module of the IPPIS has brought about the following: • Detection of 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters • Continuous suspension of Officers from IPPIS platform for not uploading their records • Verification of 69,854 officers across the core MDAs in FCT and the six (6) geo-political zones Others are: • Ongoing verification of officers across non-core MDAs in the FCT and the 6 geo-political zones.
• Verification of 205,411 Officers in non-core MDAs • Training of 2,948 end-users in all Ministries • The investigation of 3,657 officers by ICPC for not being present for Verification audit; and • Completion of verification exercise for 3,465 officers recruited from 2017-2019 and those absorbed into the mainstream.
17. Gentlemen of the Press, Ladies and Gentlemen, notwithstanding these modest achievements in the implementation of the third pillar of FCSSIP 25, the Office still remains committed to realizing the maximum potential and sanctity of the IPPIS-HR Module.
Towards this aspiration the Office is working to: • Ensure 100% Public Service HR Management on IPPIS for enhanced efficiency, productivity and waste reduction; • Ensure that IPPIS is Managed 100% by Civil Servants; and • Sustain the process of comprehensive verification of officers at the point of entry unto the IPPIS platform. At this juncture, I wish to appreciate the World Bank for the critical support to the Office with regard to the rollout of the HR Module of the IPPIS in the 34 core MDAs including the End-users and Self-Service Training and enabling the MDAs go live to access services on the platform.
INNOVATION
18. For the fourth thematic area, it is said that “Knowledge drives innovation, innovation drives productivity and productivity drives economic growth”. In the drive towards a “Civil Service of Our Dream, the Office has been able to put structures in place to effectively support and sustain innovation in the Civil Service.
The driving of Innovation in the Service has caused us to look inwards. As a result, the Office has been able to create an environment to identify gifted officers across the MDAs who have so much to offer in terms of out-of-the-box ideas and solutions.
19. Before now, the Service was faced with a Risk-averse and Closed system of public administration. The Office therefore organised the first innovation competition in 2020 to stimulate creative thinking for higher productivity and satisfactory service delivery that produced four (4) award winners.
20. To also address the issue of non-implementation of innovative ideas, the Office established a Service Innovation Department in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Service Innovation Divisions (SIDs) across MDAs. So far, three (3) editions have been organised, the most recent held in March, 2023. At the last edition, the first-place winner was awarded the prize of a total sum of three million Naira (N3,000,000) while the first and second runner up winners got one million, seven hundred and fifty Thousand Naira (N1,750,000) and one million Naira (N1,000,000) respectively. Also, the sum of two hundred thousand Naira (N200,000) was presented to each of the ten (10) other top performers as consolation prizes.
21. Hence, to prevent the continuous suppression of ideas and encourage innovation in the Service, the office is presently: • Institutionalising Innovation culture in Service through the establishment of Service Innovation Divisions (SID) across MDAs • Sustaining the annual innovation competition since hosting the maiden edition in 2020 • Deploying innovative ideas from 2020 to date such as – Anonymous Reporting System (ARS); and – Implementation of work space management solution for the Federal Secretariat Completed. • Training staff of Service Innovation Divisions across 25 MDAs with a hundred (100) already trained. 21. Looking forward with regard to Institutionalising Innovation in the Public Service, the Office plans to: • Establish a world-class innovation Hub to assist Civil Servants with innovation activities Q1 2024 • Identify, develop and deploy 10 innovations by 2025; • Host 4 Public Service innovation conferences by 2025; and • Have Fully functional and empowered innovation Department/ Divisions Service-wide that are revenue oriented.
I wish to emphasize that our workforce has great potentials and the Office is determined and committed to provide effective leadership and the necessary policy frameworks to unlock these potentials.
DIGITALIZATION – Content Services 22. Next, I wish to give an update on the 5th Pillar of FCSSIP 25, which is Digitalisation. When the journey towards the digitalisation of work processes and to emerge as a technology driven Civil Service began, the Office decided from the onset that there would be no going back. Hence, towards the actualization of this resolve, the Office explored and initiated partnerships for the deployment of an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform. As a result, the Office in collaboration with the AigImoukhuede Foundation -an independent not-for-profit organisation focused on driving public sector transformation in Africa– commenced work on preparing the Service for the deployment of the solution. Before the collaboration, the Service had to deal with: • Manually-held records and bureaucratic inhibitions to open government • Arbitrary allocation of devices without records and not based on needs • Inadequate and apathy in the use of official emails • Lack of guidelines for use of official emails; and • Use of personal e-mails for official correspondences Other issues include: • Reliance on foreign solutions with no guaranteed security or sovereignty of our data etc .
Following the sustained collaboration with the AIG Foundation, the Office of the Head of Service has been able to achieve the following:
• Provision of standardized Digitization Equipment: acquisition of hardware/software through local content • Promotion of the use of official email addresses for official communication in collaboration with Galaxy Backbone; and • Development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in all MDAs. Other initiatives are: • Establishment of Scanning Centres in OHCSF and across MDAs • Digitising Policy and Personal Files in OHCSF • Training on ISO 9001 (2015) for 40 Officers • Sensitization of Director of Reform, ICT and HRM in 35 MDAs and development of roadmap for replication of ECM at MDAs • Award of 500KW Solar PV contract by the Ministry of Power to provide alternative power at Federal Secretariat, Phase II (OHCSF) • OHCSF working with other MDAs to promote PPP models that will be used to provide alternative power • Upgraded Local Area Networks (LANs) in MDAs among others 24.
Consequent upon the very extensive work carried out to put in place structures and mechanisms for the smooth implementation of the ECM Platform, I am pleased to state that the Office of the Head of Service has gone digital with it work process.
You may wish to know that between April 17 2023 when the Office initially operationalized the platform in a live environment, about five thousand (5,300) files have been treated by the immediate Office of the Head of Service within the OHCSF while over 4,130 files of that number have completed the action cycle. What this translates to is seamless monitoring of workflow and eventual cost savings on stationaries and computer consumables. It should also be noted that some other MDAs have also deployed ECM solutions such as the Federal Ministry of Transport. So, a lot is being done in this area.
25. Looking ahead, the Office is working towards • Full digitlisation and open government across MDAs • Minimum of 50% functional official email addresses created in the Service by 2025 • Minimum of 40% Automation of Ministries’ work processes • Minimum of 60% access to government’s services online • Provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalization policy.
VALUE PROPOSITION FOR CIVIL SERVANTS (Staff Welfare)
26. The sixth and final pillar of the FCSSIP25 is basically on Enhancing Value Proposition for Civil Servants and one of 18
the Key strategic results areas is staff welfare. In pursuance of the above, the office has engaged in the following:
Housing
27. In addressing the Affordable housing challenge for Civil Servants, the Office through the Federal Integrated Staff Housing (FISH) Scheme has done the following –
Ongoing construction of 116 housing units of 2Bedroom SemiDetached Bungalow at FISH Estate Gwagwalada; – Processing of 40 off-takers Gwagwalada FISH Estate; as first batch for – Allocations of 8.12 hectares of land at Jiwa FCT, released by the FCTA 2 weeks ago for the FISH Programme; and – Sensitization of Civil servants on the operationalization of the FISH Cooperative society. – The Office Disbursement of about 6,500 Loans to public Servants between 2015 and June 2023 28. Federal Public Service Entrepreneurship Programme (FPSEP); The FPSEP was launched on 27th March, 2023 and is made up of two (2) components namely; i. ii. Agripreneurship Training Programme Business Start-Up Programme
The ‘’Agripreneurship Training Programme’’ aimed at training serving and retiring Officers that have three (3) years before retirement on various agriculture businesses. The aim is to empower the intending retirees with alternative streams of oncome to enhance their livelihood after service. 29. First batch of the Agripreneurship Training Programme; was made up of eighty-seven (87) participants from four (4) Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies including the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF). The Agripreneurship Training Programme is segmented as follows: a) Theoretical Training (One Week); this entails conceptual training or technical knowledge in farming, management, production and marketing of agricultural commodities. It entails training on the following; Farm Records Keeping, Crop production, Agro processing, Animal Husbandry, Fisheries/Aquaculture, Modern Beekeeping and honey production, Feed production and Formulation, Ornamental Flowers (Floriculture), Green-House Farming and Waste to Wealth skills etc. b) Hands-On Training (Two Weeks); this is the practical aspect of the programme which is to be carried out at selected farms. The second batch of the programme is being proposed to hold in September, 2023.
30. Group Life Assurance • Procurement of insurance cover for the Federal Government employees from 9th February 2023 to 8th February 2024; and • Payment of backlog of death benefits to over 1500 deceased Officers to their beneficiaries from 2021 to date . Working to institutionalize Reward and Recognition Scheme • R&RS institutionalized in all MDAs • 40 nominees Service-Wide were recognized and rewarded in 2022 • An endowment fund of N500,000 per awardee has been institutionalized in scheme by a private partner • One of the ten most outstanding awardees won an SUV through a raffle draw donated by a private sector partner in 2022 • A Standing Committee on nomination of awardees Service-Wide has been constituted and inaugurated on 11th May, 2023 with the mandate to screen nominations by the Ministerial Selection Committee of various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and select deserving officers for various categories of Federal Civil Service awards.
Categories of Awards: • Presidential Distinguished Public Service Career Award • Presidential Public Service Merit Award • Head of the Civil Service of the Federation Commendation Award • The Public Service Excellence Award; and • Sports achievement Award 32. Salaries • Presidential Committee on Salary Harmonization working to review salaries to reduce the disparity • 40% of Basic salary approved by FEC as Peculiar allowance with effect from January 2023 [ • Upward Review of Staff Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) I seize this opportunity to also thank His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for his fatherly concern for the welfare of all workers including civil servants and his determination to deliver a living wage in line with the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda of his Administration.
CONCLUSION
33. As I conclude, I want to sincerely appreciate, our media partners for the support thus far. As you can observe, the Nigeria Civil Service is rapidly undergoing the long-awaited transformation it deserves. It is therefore your duty as custodians and operators of the mass-media, to safeguard
the stability and sustainability of people-oriented programme, designed to bring about development and secure the wellbeing of Nigerians.
34. By the grace of God, it is our pledge as a Service to remain focused and committed to formulating and driving the policies of government for sustainable development of our beloved country. Hence, the Office will continue to forge stronger alliances and continue to re-engineer the service to be able to attain this aspiration. 35. On a final note, I wish to thank the Permanent Secretaries in the Office of the Head of Service, other Permanent Secretaries in the MDAs and all Civil Servants, our private sector partners and development partners for the commitment, camaraderie and sacrifices.
36. I wish us all happy celebrations and please give the weeklong activities the widest and most objective coverage possible.
