PermSec in Youth Development Ministry justifies need for public service reforms

[FMINigeria]

The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Youth Development, Tunji Olaopa has ascribed need for Government's efforts to revitalise the public service for greater effectiveness and efficiency to the position of the service as pivot for socio-economic growth and development as well as major tool for implementation of government policies and programmes. 

He stated this recently, while delivering a lecture as the Guest Speaker in the 45th Annual Conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria which took place at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.

Tunji Olaopa in his paper titled: "Reforming the Public Service for Excellence and Ethical Leadership" justified the need for reforms as a re-engineering process intended to uplift the age-long role of the service as the engine room for national transformation. He disclosed that current efforts are directed towards entrenching the culture of "professionalism, value re-orientation, re-skilling and installation of new business models for new productivity paradigms in the national economy."

The Permanent Secretary shared the view that professionalism or the pursuit of excellence should be at the heart of the public service values associated with doing the right things and doing them rightly. While underscoring the necessity for continuing reforms in the service, the he identified the core components of effective reform strategies to include – public accountability, transparency, leadership by example, pay reforms, recruitment and promotion, conflict of interest as well as favouritism and nepotism.

He mentioned that a number of issues have reduced the effectiveness of previous reform initiatives; saying the rationale for the failure of such efforts accrue to some systemic and non-systemic factors.

Tunji Olaopa indicated that the roadmap for moving the public service forward necessitates the reinforcement of MDAs' capacities to support government in making impact through its policies and deployment of non-systemic technical support structures. Also, the creation of a new generation of public managers committed to the agenda of installing a new productivity paradigm in the public service and re-engineering of MDAs management systems into performance-oriented, technology-enabled and accountable business model rooted in SERVICOM.



Source: PermSec in Youth Development Ministry justifies need for public service reforms
Federal Ministry of Information (FMI) Nigeria