Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Head of Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, has given reasons for the Federal Government’s investment in human capital development, saying it is to empower civil servants to create more value for sustainable governance in the country.
Yemi-Esan reiterated the government’s commitment to revitalising the Nigerian public service through the Performance Management System (PMS) initiative, a new system designed to re-engineer and reinvigorate the service performance.
The Head of Service spoke at the opening ceremony of a three-day “Train the Trainer Workshop in Job Objectives Setting”, organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.
The Head of Service, who urged workers to see their employment as a privileged position to add reasonable value to governance and also make a commitment towards self-development, stated that with the enormous investment that government is making on the civil service, every individual must be accountable to the government.
Yemi-Esan disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the opening ceremony of an ongoing three-day “Train the Trainer Workshop in Job Objectives Setting” organised by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria.
She noted that efforts were being made to frequently train and re-train all categories of workers in the Federal civil service, and also pursue with vigour people-friendly reform policies.
‘I state that if your approach to work is as a necessary evil, you should be conscious of the fact that there are things you can do to get some value out of it. I’m indeed desirous that going forward we all will see what we do as not only an opportunity to be of service but to ultimately develop ourselves to be the best the service can ever hope for,’ she said.
Yemi-Esan also explained that the government had decided to restructure the Performance Management System in the Service, in order to inculcate the spirit of productivity and excellent service delivery on workers.
‘As you are aware, the Performance Management System (PMS) is one of the eight priority areas in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2017-2020) which is designed to re-engineer the Federal Public Service for increased productivity and quality service delivery. It would be noted that at several fora, we have informed on efforts being made by the office to develop a new Performance Management System due to the inherent weakness of the current Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER).
‘It is, therefore, worth stating that the new PMS is based on the principles of Accountability, Transparency, Equity and Ownership. When the new PMS is fully operational, every individual, unit, department and institution in the public service shall be held accountable on a continuous basis to ensure that national development goals are met,’ she added.
The Head of Service said the workshop was organised by her office in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM) and was meant to acquaint participants with the requisite knowledge and skills in setting job objectives and discharging their mandates.
She said the initiative was due to the inherent weakness of the current Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER), use currently to assess the civil servants in the country.
‘As you are aware, the PMS is one of the eight priority areas in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2017-2020) which is designed to re-engineer the Federal Public Service for increased productivity and quality service delivery.
‘It would be noted that at several fora, we have informed on efforts being made by the office to develop a new Performance Management System due to the inherent weakness of the current Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER). It is therefore worth stating that the new PMS is based on the principles of accountability, transparency, equity and ownership,’ Yemi-Esan said.
She added that when the new PMS is fully operational, every individual, unit, department and institution in the public service shall be held accountable on a continuous basis to ensure that national development goals are met.
She said: ‘PMS will eventually replace the unverifiable and moribund Annual Performance Evaluation Report APER forms currently used to assess the performance of officers in the Public Service.’
She said that the other objective of the PMS was to provide a platform for continuous enhancement of performance with regards to national development programmes and also to serve as a vehicle for the actualization of national goals.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office, Dr Magdalene Ajani, called on all participants of the workshop to take the training opportunity given to them very seriously, as the government was depending on the Civil Service to grow a sustainable economy in the country.
Ajani also noted that the era of civil servants taking training opportunities as leisure time was over. She tasked participants to add value to government activities as justification for the resources committed to developing them.
In his remark, President CIPM, Mr Wale Adediran, charged the participant to take the workshop seriously, saying that the success of the workshop was critical, not only for the office of the HoCSF but to the country.
Adediran assured that the cultural transformation desired and the dream in the Federal Civil Service of the nation would be achieved in the course of the workshop.
‘This is the life skill, it goes beyond our service to the nation, this will transform not only our country but will transform our families, it`s about getting the best productivity out of every situation’ he said.