Civil Service No Longer A Welfare Institution — FG

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, says a strict system has been put in place to attract and bring qualified persons into the civil service.

Yemi-Esan, who said this at the April edition of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR’s) lunch-time reform seminar on Thursday in Abuja, said the system needed to be purged of incompetent hands.

The HOS was represented by Dr Emmanuel Meribole, the Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office, OHCSF.

She said that the civil service was no longer a welfare institution where all manners of people were recruited to check the unemployment crisis in the country.

She said that the objective of reforming the public service was to increase its effectiveness and efficiency so as to promote economic and social development.

Yemi-Esan said the new reform programme in the service, the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP) 2017-2020, was derived from the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

She added that it was consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as it will address economic, social and environmental sustainability issues.

Mr Dasuki Arabi, the Director-General, BPSR, argued that the Public Service, post-COVID-19, needed to support the implementation and adoption of Federal Government’s e-Government Master-plan.

“This will promote infrastructural development, digitalisation of government processes and documentation, create online platforms for efficiency and transparency and use the new media to provide information to the citizens.

“As a first and critical step Post COVID-19, the Federal Government needs to revisit the existing and numerous public service reform strategies and plans in reflecting on desirable administrative reform measures,” she said. (NAN)