Says Bureau tackles frictions between CEOs, Boards in federal establishments
Confirms introduction of TSA has reduced corruption to more than 80%
Identifies lack of skilled manpower as challenge to MDAs
The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dasuki Arabi, has reaffirmed the Federal Government’s determination to carry out recommendations by the committees on Oronsaye’s Whitepaper to ensure its implementation.
Arabi gave the assurance and others when he featured at the News Agency of Nigeria Forum on Sunday in Abuja.
The purpose of the whitepaper is to ensure reduction in the cost of governance through the restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government agencies.
Following the delay in the implementation of the initiative, the Federal Government recently reconstituted two sub-committees on Restructuring and Rationalisation of Federal Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions.
And the other committee is to review new agencies created after the submission of the report from 2014 to date.
According to Arabi, who is also a member of the sub-committee, government has been looking at the recommendations to effect the reports
“The most difficult thing to drive is change, and where that change is expected to come, there are lots of implications.
“Government needs to be very careful in carrying out that, especially looking at our size, our diversity, and the issues and problems that we are facing as a nation.”
To propel the implementation of the whitepaper, the BPSR boss confirmed that the two committees had carefully re-examined issues recommended in the reports
“The report was submitted to Federal Government on Tuesday and it will be transmitted to the president for his consideration and for other directives,” he said.
Arabi said the Federal Government was determined not to look backward but to continue in its transformation initiative and to reform the public service to implement the needed changes.
Arabi also said that the BPSR has introduced induction programmes to address areas of friction between chief executives and board members in federal establishments.
He said that the essence of the initiative was to make both parties understand their red and green lights.
“We have understood over time that quite a number of either the chief executives or the board members are appointed from outside the public service.
“They have never come across the public service, so when they come in they need to be trained.
“Hence, we came up with this initiative which has been approved by the Federal Government and it has been institutionalised.
“And in the cause of doing this work we come across quite a number of problems and issues between chief executives and board members.
“As a result of what we are doing, quite a number of the issues are resolved and we have drawn the attention of the Federal Government to some of the challenges which are being addressed.”
The director-general further explained that the emphasis was on them to understand that the privilege they got was an opportunity for them to serve the citizens.
“And, they are representing the president and their states.
“So if they come in as board members and they are not doing what they are supposed to do, they will be disappointing both the government and their citizens,” Arabi said.
The Director-General of the BPSR also said that the introduction of Treasury Single Account has reduced corruption in Nigeria to more than 80 per cent.
He said though the initial implementation of TSA was difficult for Nigerians to accept, but its reality had begun to have effect both in the country’s economy and in the reduction of high level of corruption in public services.
“TSA is effective in a sense that if you are importing goods worth N1 billion and you are not smuggling them through the borders and they are coming into the country, you must pay duties.
“You must pay duties and you can’t pay duties with cash, it must be paid online to TSA, and I think it has reduced abuses around that by more than 80 per cent, if not 90 per cent.
“We had problems with agencies at the kickoff of the programme because some of them run their services based on what they were able to generate as revenue.”
Arabi said presently whatever was generated went into an account that could not be touched.
“So if we have an account that customers pay into, it will be difficult for anybody to touch that money,” he explained.
According to the bureau boss, the digitisation initiative process introduced by the Federal Government has assisted electronically to monitor goods coming into the country.
“Other things may be happening around and under the table, but as I said, the backlog of all these works we are doing is the digitisation that is going on.
“Where you have a container coming in from China and the bill of lading, all the documents are electronically transmitted to Nigeria.”
According to him, agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Services, Nigerian Customs, Shippers Council and Port Authority are responsible for the monitoring, thereby, making it difficult for anybody to change anything.
“Because it has gone in the system, so I am confident that it has reduced corruption by more than 80 to 90 per cent,” the DG said.
Arabi said the Federal Government had gone deeply into the reforming of the system to curtail the corruption across board in the country.
“And as we get deep into the reforms, there will be no space for us to touch one or two things and where you don’t meet anybody; you pay all your things online.
“It will be difficult for anybody to convince you to get one or two kobo out of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Arabi has identified lack of skilled manpower as a major challenge affecting productivity in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He stressed the need for public servants to gain more knowledge through IT-based programmes to meet the needs of the present global standards in delivery of public services.
To proffer solutions, the BPSR’s boss, however, disclosed that government had come up with initiatives to improve the quality of services in the MDAs.
“One of the things that we have identified is lack of capacity. We have wonderful programmes, we have wonderful initiatives, but the skilled manpower to drive those policies and programmes is always a problem.
“And that is why part of the reforms the Federal Government is driving is capacity building,” he said.
According to him, the government has launched a special capacity development initiative tagged: Structured Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) and Leadership Enhancement and Development Programme (LEAD-P) to address the gaps.
He said the introduction of the two programmes was to upscale and retrain public servants in the country.
The director-general said the SMART-P and LEAD-P initiatives were to restructure the nation’s public service to meet global standards.
“In addition to that, group of officers have been selected after passing through vigorous tests, examinations and interviews.
“They are undergoing training in the Public Service Institute to see how we can start the process of developing champions.”
Arabi said that the government had directed all MDAs to pay special attention to capacity building, adding that capacity programmes were also online for the benefit of a greater number of civil servants.
“Some have already started; government has put up IT-based training facilities in the public service institutions.
“This is part of the things that we will be doing to drive online capacity development programmes, so that people can attend those courses from the comfort of their houses or their offices,” he added.
(NAN)
