As HOSF interacts with Directors, two new departments created in some Federal Ministries

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji has announced the creation of two new departments in some strategic Ministries in the Federal Civil Service.  These are the Department of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement and a General Services Department.

The Head of Service announced this at the interactive session with Directors of Administration in the Federal Civil Service held on Monday, 10th February, 2014 at the auditorium of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.

The Head of Service explained that the creation of these new Departments was in line with the efforts being made to improve service delivery and ensure the sustenance of the various initiatives in the current reforms through the utilization of the highly skilled manpower in the Federal Civil Service.

Towards this end, he said further that the Director in the Permanent Secretary’s Office has been assigned with the additional responsibilities of coordinating and supervising MDAs in addition to liaising with the National Assembly.   He also revealed that the National Records Centre has been reinvigorated and upgraded into an Office to be headed by a Director.

While also briefing the Directors on the issue of the restructuring of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Alhaji Goni Aji said that with the assistance of development partners, particularly the Federal Public Administration Reform (FEPAR)  of the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DFID), the following achievements have been made:

Consolidation of 26 Departments supervised by 6 Permanent Secretaries to a fit for purpose 13 Departments and 3 Permanent Secretaries;

 Establishment of the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department

(PTAD) and the appointment of a Director-General to manage the Pension liabilities in the old pension scheme as required by the Pension Reform Act of 2004 and to enhance efficiency;

 In deepening the reform exercise, a Director-General was also approved for the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR);

Introduction of the Permanent Secretary Peer Review Exercise, so that top level management can constantly assess their performance contract in order to propagate best practices;

 In line with the directive of the Federal Government that all public officers be enrolled on the IPPIS, to date 274 Ministries, Departments and Agencies has been captured on the platform with a total of 111,000 core civil servants.  The process is ongoing in order to meet the deadline and a human resource business model is being packaged to ensure smooth migration of staff records.

 While speaking on the visits of Federal Permanent Secretaries to the Federal Civil Servants in the States, the Head of Service  said, that was to  enable Government have an assessment of federal secretariats in the States and plan for an intervention towards the rehabilitation of the structures.   He added that his Office is working with MDAs for the creation of toll free GSM lines to ensure ease of all communication between the headquarters and staff in the States.

 The Head of Service urged the Directors to remain loyal and to project a positive image of Government at all times.  Directors, he said, “are focal officers whose role remains critical to the successes of not only the current transformation agenda of government but also the sustenance of the initiatives in the reform programme of the Federal Civil Service.”

 He said that in the last promotion exercise conducted by the Federal Civil Service Commission, a total of 110 (One Hundred and ten) officers were promoted to Directors of Administration, which is the largest in recent times.   He therefore charged the elevated officers to reciprocate with better service delivery.