The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, on Wednesday announced plan to ensure that the nation’s civil service was efficient, productive, incorruptible and citizen-centred.
Oyo-Ita unfolded the strategy at a sensitisation workshop on the 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan organised for civil servants in the directorate level in Abuja.
Oyo-Ita said the strategy, which has been approved by the Federal Executive Council, had eight priority areas selected based on their potential for impact in the short-term and their relevance to the ERGP implementation roles.
She identified salary review as the first step towards enhancing civil servants’ values.
“We need to launch a salary review of the civil service as a first step to enhance the value proposition of civil servants.
“I am for salary review. We must increase salary. I am not saying this as a union leader but because I am aware of what workers go through,” she said.
She said the plan would also seek to re-design three core-training modules, including Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme as a top talent programme and identify a ‘LEAD-P Presidential Cohort’ to cultivate as next generation of leaders in service.
According to her, the plan will also launch a strategic sourcing of identified skills to bring in external talent at senior levels to drive high-level impact; institutionalise performance management by finalising the performance management system, piloting tools and introducing non-monetary recognition; drive innovation in service by establishing public service innovation unit within the OHCSF and launching an innovation challenge towards reducing cost of governance and increasing revenue generation.
Others, she said, included the launch of an EPIC culture transformation of the civil service; accelerate roll-out of the full implementation of Integrated Personnel and Pay Roll Information System Human Resource module, and the establishment of an enterprise content management solution to digitise content.
By 2020, Oyo-Ita said the plan was expected to have delivered outcomes that include N60n-120bn savings from cleaning HR data on IPPIS; N2.5bn annual savings from digitising content; 25,000 civil servants trained through revamped core modules; and 200 future leaders cultivated through LEAD-P, among others.
She added, “The implementation of this strategy will not succeed without the support of the directorate level officers who are critical stakeholders in the service.
“It is evident that stakeholders’ buy-in and ownership by the top management staff is crucial for successful delivery of the strategy.
“You are, therefore, expected to assume the responsibility of ensuring that the medium and junior level officers are carried along in the implementation of the strategy.”
She described online records update as a key requirement for the implementation of the HR module of IPPIS, saying it must be completed by every employee of the Federal Government to maintain their records on the IPPIS platform.
“The future of the Nigerian civil service is in our hands. It is therefore imperative for us to work collectively towards making the service function better in order to guarantee a sustainable socio-economic development of Nigeria,” she said.
