By Goke Adegoroye, PhD, OON
1ST NATIONAL POLICY DIALOGUE ON STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING SERVICE DELIVERY IN GOVERNMENT PARASTATALS, AGENCIES AND COMMISSIONS: Theme: “EFFEICIENT AND EFFECTIVE SERVICE DELIVERY: IMPERATIVES FOR ENHANCING THE CHANGE AGENDA”
4TH SESSION – 3.00 pm 27 March, 2017
Strategies for Optimizing Service Delivery in Parastatals – Goke Adegoroye, PhD, OON
Protocols`
I congratulate the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), and indeed, the SERVICOM Office for organizing this very First Policy Dialogue on Strategies for Improving Service Delivery in Government Parastatals, Agencies and Commissions. I also thank them for inviting me as a speaker.
I accepted the invitation to speak in this forum because I am always ready to contribute to any deliberations on how to improve the public service. Besides and notwithstanding my other commitments at this period, with what I have gathered from the grapevine about this invitation and the role of the Perm Sec GSO, I cannot but be here. Mallam Mohammed Bukar stands out uniquely as one of the very few officers that I had identified, as far back as 2002-2003 when they were on GLs 14 and 15, as having the potential to rise to the grade of Perm Sec. Given the story surrounding directorate level promotions by the Federal Civil Service Commission and the appointment of Perm Secs by successive Heads of the Civil Service in recent past, his own elevation, when it happened, stood out as one of the very few pleasant surprises. Therefore, I remain ever ready to render by own contributions to his success, in much the same way that he worked with me in those days as a very reliable officer.
Introduction
I believe that the organizers have assembled those of us who are speakers and discussants here because of our experience as practitioners, to enable them map out the way forward, regarding what they might have assessed to be the short-coming of the efforts of the functionaries heading various parastatals, agencies and commissions as organs of Government. In other words, coming here to present papers that do not speak to the conscience of the ground truths, will be a disservice to the organizers of this Policy Dialogue and, indeed, our nation. As for me, my educational background was in the sciences. I therefore, always, speak with verifiable facts, figures and illustrations. To do otherwise and speak tongue-in-the-cheek like the some of my colleagues whose background was political science (no malice meant please) will make me a misfit.
The topic that I have been assigned, within the Policy Dialogue’s overarching theme of “Efficient and Effective Service Delivery: Imperatives for enhancing the Change Agenda”, is: “Strategies for Optimizing Service Delivery in Parastatals”.
Let me thank the SERVICOM Office and the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for assembling a formidable Panel of Discussants for the topic. Prof. Peter Azikiwe Onwualu is not only an engineer of distinction but one that has served as a Director of NASENI, Nigeria’s apex development and regulatory institution in science and technology, and gone further to run the key agency that pushes the outcome of research in raw materials to the private sector for investment. Prof. Is-haq Oloyede has similarly not only served as Vice Chancellor of one of our leading universities, he is now the Registrar of JAMB, an agency of government dealing with a large percentage of our vibrant population and whose responses to the challenges of the agency’s operations require him to invest in optimization. Prof. Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, as the Executive Secretary of the National Universities’ Commission, the regulatory agency of the universities in Nigeria, is in the same boat as both Profs Onwualu and Oloyede. And so is the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission. Each of them is more than qualified to present the lead paper for this session. Therefore, in deference to their respective competencies, which I am sure that they would bring to bear on doing justice to the topic when it is their turn to discuss it, I am going to focus more on examining the topic within the context of Public Service Rules, Financial Regulations and other extant provisions guiding cross-cutting processes and procedures in the public service.
Background
A lot has been said here already about Service Delivery within the context of governance. According to the book, Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria, Volume 1: The Civil Service Pathway (Adegoroye 2015), “Governance is the process by which public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources to address the political, economic, social, environmental, administrative, legal, security issues of State. It entails structures (organizational arrangements) and processes for decision making, accountability, control and conduct at the top of the respective organizational arrangements”. These structures and processes are set out to ensure that their intended outcomes for the political class, the citizens and other stakeholders are defined and achieved. Considering that, for the populace, the intended measurable outcomes of addressing the issues of state by public institutions are the services delivered, service delivery has become the very essence of governance.
All over the world, parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations (commercial/semi privatized government entities) usually constitute the bulk of the organizational arrangements put in place by governments to address governance issues. To that extent, Nigeria is not an exemption. However, when one examines the wide array of parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations (PACC) in Nigeria, their duplication, overlapping roles and role-conflicts and how effective each of them has been in delivering the services spelt out in their mandates, one may not be wrong if you begin to question the relevance of some of them in nation building.
Not only because of their numbers (Nigeria has 541 PACCs and the number is still increasing), but also because they are most often government’s organizational structures serving as the point of contact with both the public and the private sectors, parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations are the “face of governance”. They are, among others,
• Implementer/ Executor of government decisions;
• Regulator/ Enforcer of guidelines and standards; law and order;
• Monitoring authority of projects;
• Evaluator of processes and procedures;
• Assessor/Collector of taxes and rates;
• Approving authority of procedures; and
• Issuing authority of Permits and other Authorizations, etc.
Ministers, obviously, are the “Face of Government”.
Optimization issues
Optimization as a concept and its introduction into the public sector has followed the same pattern and route as other private sector management jargons which, like service delivery itself, have been imported into public sector management. Optimization is an industry/engineering concept, especially of Facility Management, and a lot of its literature is being powered by the ISS in collaboration with the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies.
Optimization typically has an operational focus and involves both the provision of public services and more effective asset-resource management
In literatures on public sector reforms, there are 4 key optimization issues that have been identified as challenging the public sector. These are: (i) Efficiency, and Doing “More with Less”; (ii) Mass Customization; (iii) Balancing Automation and the “human touch”; and (iv) Breaking Organizational Silos. However, recognizing that efforts by public sector authorities to push for optimization would in no time start to receive negative returns, it is being advised that optimization be backed up with 3 equally important transformation issues, namely: (i) Increased Transparency and Trust; (ii) Communication and Citizen Engagement; and (iii) Expansion and Development of New Matrix for Success. Taken together, in line with the approach of the ISS, the 7 Optimization and Transformation issues challenging the public sector are:
(i) Efficiency and Doing “More with Less”;
(ii) Mass Customization;
(iii) Balancing Automation and the “human touch”;
(iv) Breaking Organizational Silos;
(v) Increased Transparency and Trust;
(vi) Communication and Citizen Engagement; and
(vii) Expansion and Development of New Matrix for Success.
On a first encounter, some of these terminologies, like “mass customization” and “balancing automation with human touch”, may look or sound esoteric, considering the traditional methods of public sector management that we have been used to. However, when one digs into them and in relation to the specific mandates and requirements of many of our parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations, then one would begin to appreciate their relevance to efforts aimed at transforming these agencies.
Let us then briefly go through the literature rationales of these terminologies:
Efficiency and Doing “More with Less”
Public administrators are being asked to “do more with less”-to maintain, or even increase productivity in the face of budget and staff cuts. This calls for ways to compensate for dwindling financial resources by getting the most out of human resources. People in their organizations must learn how to work smarter, not harder.
Quality improvement calls for a total transformation of management philosophy so that all employees can focus on the never-ending improvement of quality; it entails making decisions based on data, not just on hunches and guesses; and requires an almost fanatical devotion to customers. The goal always is to meet and preferably exceed customers’ needs and expectations.
Mass Customization
The concept of mass customization is defined as “producing goods and services to meet individual customer’s needs with near mass production efficiency”. Kaplan & Haenlein (2006) calls it “a strategy that creates value by some form of company-customer interaction at the fabrication and assembly stage of the operations level to create customized products with production cost and monetary price similar to those of mass-produced products”. Similarly, McCarthy (2004) defines it as “the capability to manufacture a relatively high volume of product options for a relatively large market (or collection of niche markets) that demands customization, without tradeoffs in cost, delivery and quality”.
In literature, one would even find different types of mass customization, namely: Collaborative customization; Adaptive customization; Transparent customization; and Cosmetic customization – a terminology used to describe firms that produce a standardized physical product, but market it to different customers in unique ways. Example: Soft Drink served in: A can, 1.25L bottle, 2L bottle.
Balancing Automation and “human touch”
Increasing focus on affordable governance, is leading the public sector to placing a larger emphasis on automation to optimize service-level efficiency. The challenge is how public institutions can become more effective without compromising the human touch. The choice in the public sector is a strategic dilemma because while some industry experts see automation as the only way forward, others claim that the human element is the bedrock of public sector delivery, and that it should not be compromised. A classic case in literature is the well-functioning ICT implementation of the UK healthcare, where from a historical perspective, a meal order would be taken by the nurse or ward hostess on a paper form and sent to the kitchen. If the meal was not in stock the patient would be sent whatever was available. To streamline and make the process more effective, an electronic Patient Meal Ordering System (PMOS) was installed. The system enabled a ward hostess to take a meal order on a tablet at the bedside. The system helped to move to “real time” menu ordering whereby the patient is only offered what is in stock and therefore has a choice every time.
Breaking Organizational Silos
Public sector organizations, like their private sector counterparts, are often comprised of poorly coordinated bureaucratic structures – “silos”. Originally, these have been created as a way to structure processes and manage human capital. Today, however, silo approaches are perceived more negatively, blamed on historical working relations representing an “it has always been like that” attitude to work.
Silos manifest in different forms: of hierarchy, on sectors or themes (like healthcare or education), and on mode of value delivery: there are thinkers, planners and the doers. Unfortunately, due to the historically established bureaucratic structures, finding a way to integrate these dimensions and delivery modes to enable the system take advantage of the potential dynamics is incredibly challenging.
Breaking organizational silos involves harnessing technology and other innovations, greater cross-governmental collaboration, project-based task management, and transitioning from providers to facilitators to create affordable government. It also entails leadership and vision.
Summarizing the 7 Optimization and Transformation Issues Challenging the Public Sector:
• Efficiency and Doing “More with Less”; in the face of dwindling resources/appropriations and the ever-increasing citizen rights awareness (e.g. traditional adverts channels of 3 national dailies; national TV, etc. versus dedicated web site; radio jingles etc.)
• Mass Customization i.e. Using flexible, intelligent technologies and ICT systems to produce/render services to large number of people; Prof. Oloyede would certainly have some experience to share with us
• Balancing Automation and the “human touch”; the decision to automate requires at all times a careful consideration of all stakeholder needs, or even some kind of consideration of ethics which is invariably sector and context specific. It requires evaluating the internal and external values for a given service. Prof Onwualu would be able to elaborate on this.
• Breaking Organizational Silos, harnessing technology and using inter-agency networks to do more of “facilitating” rather than “providing” to create affordable government. Illustrate with Ministry-agency relations (Minister vs DGs; PS vs DG; Policy Dept. vs Agency); inter-agency and intra agency role-conflicts and power struggles – see Adegoroye 2010 FEPA vs NAFDAC; BPSR vs MSO (OHCSF); FCDA vs PS FCTA;
• Increase Transparency and Trust – illustrate with the processes and procedures of recruitment, promotion and discipline; fighting corruption; and dispensing justice. FCSC; EFCC; Human Rights Commission
• Communication and Citizen Engagement – flashback to Year 2000 in the protocols, processes and procedures of an Environmental Enforcement Officer and assess the adequacy of those protocols, processes and procedures in today’s world. As an environmental enforcement officer in the year 2000, presenting a case against a factory caught burying expired chemicals in its facility would entail: (i) carrying a camera to take pictures of the act, (ii) taking the film to a studio for development, (iii) printing out the pictures, then (iv) writing the brief for the DG of the agency to build a case against the factory. This would take not less than 3 days. Today, with the help of a smartphone, an activist could do all that in 3 minutes and splash the recording all over the social media, such that an agency that is sloppy in responding to issues would end up embarrassing Government.
• Expand and/or Develop New Metrics for Success – by looking beyond the caged notion of “input, output and profit” towards increasingly “performance-driven, outcome-based, and socially-centered“ growth.
Identifying Some Clear Examples of Optimization Requiring Processes in the Public Sector: Upstream and Down Stream processes; Aviation; HRM and Financial Management – IFAS (Payroll – IPPIS; GFMIS); Examination and Test Management; Recruitment. Hopefully the discussants would share with us their experience in some of these areas during this session.
Our Road to Optimization – The Home Truths
Now that we seem to have some appreciation of what optimization is about, before we begin to romanticize it, let us tell ourselves some home truths.
Optimization presumes that current processes and procedures have attained some commendable level, and that efforts to optimize are geared towards raising their performance to a near-perfect or as effective as they could possibly be. But can we state with confidence that our performance, and the processes and procedures that we operate throughout our PACC are at a commendable level? How many of our public institutions are achieving the desired results? We know that the truth is that many of them are performing dysfunctional and conflicting roles or rending sub-optimal, ineffective and inefficient services.
Even if we want to play the ostrich, what is the public impression of our parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations and indeed of the mainstream civil service that serves as parent to these PACCs?
Let me state with emphasis that the above highlighted optimization strategies that we are advocating for service delivery will not produce any meaningful and measurable results unless and until they find practical expression in the way we conduct the affairs of our respective parastatals, agencies, commissions and corporations. In this regard, I highlight below the fundamental issues that need to be addressed as a prelude to embarking on optimization strategies in the parastatals, agencies, commission, and corporations (PACC). All these fundamental issues have been addressed in my twin-volume book – Restoring Good Governance in Nigeria, Volume 1: The Civil Service Pathway; and Volume 2: Leadership and Political Will, that was released to the public shortly after this administration came into power in 2015. The critical question is: how do we reconcile our desire to embark on Strategies for Optimizing Service Delivery in Parastatals with the ills plaguing the PACC, as have been identified in various chapters of RGGN?
Structural and Ethical Issues Working Against Optimization
• The Funding of PACC
– in terms of quantum, timeliness of release, management by the CEOs as well as their refusal to acknowledge that Directors of Departments require some level of approving authority as backbone for the effective discharge of their departmentally assigned responsibilities.
– This refusal to cede to Directors some level of approving authority to incur expenditure is much against the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval of 16 May, 2007;
– Is there any correlation between funding of agencies and the performance of those agencies in terms of service delivery? Rate FIRS, EFCC, Police at the DPO level; NESREA; etc.
• Absence of Conducive Working Environment – in terms of working tools, electricity, decent toilets etc.
• The Capacity Challenge in PACC
Like in the mainstream civil service as discussed in RGGN chapter 18, p.291-295, the capacity challenge in the PACCs is characterized by:
– “An HRM system that rather than being competency and skills-based attaches greater importance to number of years spent on grade level”;
– “Training that is neither needs-based nor is able to enhance the abilities of staff to turn resources into results” (many CEOs have been reported to prefer awarding training contracts to their cronies who then go and rent Hotel spaces in Dubai to conduct those training – a situation that unfortunately is welcome to most officers as it affords them the avenue to earn estacodes).
– “Deployment processes and procedures, especially at the main stream civil service that supervises/oversights parastatals are largely patronage-driven and are therefore the cause of not just institutional dysfunction but dysfunctions that have been institutionalized to rule, albeit ruin the public service” (RGGN p.293). “The driving principles of deployment must remain the relocation of talents, experience and resourcefulness to address proven demands of the respective MDAs” (RGGN p.295).
• The Quality question of the Chief Executive Officers of PACCs
– “Parastatals, agencies and commissions operate on the basis of the laws establishing them, which provide for appointment into their chief executive positions to be made by the president. The experience over the years is that the majority of the appointees come into the office, sometimes without the cognate qualifications that would make them merit such high-profile appointments, most times without public service experience but always with the bloated ideas about the powers of their office” (RGGN p.74). – Illustrate further with their penchant to sign letters to their superiors with red ink operated pens.
• Ethics, Values and Integrity at individual officer level
“How would those with compromised integrity be able to stand to uphold the public trust since those without integrity cannot give what they do not have?”
• Institutional Integrity;
“Official positions very often constitute pressures for the integrity of public officers, but that is a challenge that can be managed. When however public officers themselves constitute pressures for the integrity of their offices as it was increasingly the case in recent past, then the nation is in crisis” (Adegoroye, 2004; RGGN p.48).
• Overbearing nature of Ministers supervising Parastatals:
– Under the weight of demands of many ministers and their political associates and the often-cited threats of sacking of CEOs, how far can an agency go in the execution of their mandates and the achievement of their targets? RGGN chapter 9 p.144-164 which highlights as many 16 channels of abuse of recurrent budget in MDAs states that “In the absence of effective coordination between mainline ministries and their parastatals, the same trip has ended up being concurrently funded by the ministry and one tow or even three agencies of the ministry”.
– It needs to be stressed that “Ministerial” control of parastatals is an institutional rather than personal authority over those parastatals. Unfortunately, many ministers have misconstrued this to mean an authority conferred on their persons, whereas what is implied is guidance by the line policy departments and the offices of the Perm Sec and Minister. Such guidance/control is expected to be transparent. That is why the Administrative Guidelines Regulating Relationship between Parastatals/Government Owned Companies and The Government clearly states that “in every case, the permanent secretary must be present whenever the minister discusses with the board members or the chief executive of the parastatal”. RGGN p.278
• Absence of a Clear Institutional Framework for the Coordination of PACCs:
– “There is neither a recognized coordinating office charged with managing the CEOs of parastatals and agencies nor a central HRM office for the arbitration of complaints arising from questionable appointments, promotion and discipline for the career public servants in the these PACCs”.
– Mass sacking of Directors has become in many cases the first public announcement that a new Minister has arrived in a Ministry. Replacements, of course are in most cases their hangers-on and other cronies of the political god fathers.
– “The first and only conference/meeting of CEOs of federal agencies with the SGF was on 12 October 2000.
– The notion that the SGF has the coordination responsibility for federal agencies is not supported by any document. Hence there is no bureaucratic support for the interaction of the SGF with these agencies. Such duty has often been assigned to the Perm Sec GSO, the Perm Sec Special Duties office or simply to a favoured Special Assistant to the SGF as the focal point of contact with the CEO”, depending on which the SGF finds convenient or comfortable to use as willing tool for his special interests in these agencies (RGGN P.297);
– OSGF must come up with a Revised Guideline on Relationship between Ministry and Its Parastatals
– The office to oversee the Parastatals /agencies must be clearly designated
– Notwithstanding the respective Acts establishing the parastatals/agencies there is a need for and office to oversight the CEOs of those agencies. RGGN chapter 19 p. 296-301, has proposed the establishment of a Federal Public Service Council, in the manner of the National Judicial Council, the Nigeria Police Council and the National Defence Council.
– Is SERVICOM Office properly constituted to drive the changes that it desires in the PACC?
– To refuse to address the structural and political issues surrounding the parallel existence of SERVICOM office with BPSR is to run foul of the optimization philosophy that we are promoting here. SERVICOM today is a victim of the circumstances of its birth as a DFID funded establishment run over the years by political appointee heads rather than by CEOs with career in the public service. It has always been disconnected from the BPSR. Continued appointment of political appointees to head SERVICOM would permanently insulate it from the mainstream public service.
How Far Are We on The Ladder of Optimization?
The first issue in optimization and one that resonates well with processes and procedures in the public sector across all Ministries, Extra-Ministerial Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is Efficiency and Doing More with Less, and I am going to use it to illustrate how far we are on the ladder of optimization.
Efficiency and Doing More with Less
In RGGN, a whole chapter has been devoted to the wastage in government under the title Tracer Analysis of the Official Abuse of MDA Budget/Appropriation. Listed as avenues for official abuse of Budgets in MDAs are:
1. Taking Deliberate Advantage of the Subsisting Accounting Gaffe
2. Large Retinue of Aides; (listed beyond the regular Special Assistant and Personal Assistant permitted by Public Service Rules are a catalogue of other titles such as “Special Advisers”, “Senior Special Assistants” and Chief of Staff to the SGF / Minister” all of which were being paid for with government funds
3 Payment of Hotel Accommodation/Rents
4 Official Travels Approval
5 Delegation Size on Official Trips
6 Air Travel Costs and the Newly Acquired Taste for Chartered Flights
7 Estacode, Warm Clothing & Contingency Allowances
8 Double Dipping in the Funding of Official Tours
9 Unofficial Trips
Week-end Trips
10 Attendance of Social Functions and Festivals
11 Irregular Payment of Uniform Allowances
12 Public Relations
13 Organization of Out-of-Station Retreats, Workshops and Meetings
14 The Burden of Oversight Functions of the National Assembly
15 Election Year Pressures of the Ruling Political Party
16 Official Vehicles and Personal Computers, iPads, note-pads
RGGN concludes that “In all cases, these violations are what have systemically deprived MDAs of the value of whatever is spent under the various sub-heads of the Recurrent Expenditure. That the culprit MDAs have continued to sustain themselves, in the absence of the expected benefit of fund provision under their appropriations, raises the question of the propriety of the volume of allocation under these sub-heads”.
As you would recall, early in 2016, the Minister of Finance announced the establishment of Efficiency Unit (E-Unit) to monitor government agencies and ensure all expenditures are necessary and represent the best possible value for money. The E-Unit, domiciled at Federal Ministry of Finance, is expected to review government Overhead Expenditure across all Ministries, Extra-Departments and Agencies to identify and eliminate wasteful spending, duplication and other inefficiencies, to reduce wastage, promote efficiency and ensure quantifiable savings for the country. In order to properly address the strategies for optimizing Service Delivery in parastatals, SERVICOM may need to liaise with the Efficiency Unit to see how well the Unit is mitigating wastage in the public sector.
Some Easily Achievable Prescriptions (low hanging fruits) as We Look Forward to Optimization
We need to overhaul many things if we are to improve the efficiency of Government spending.
Take for example, the paraphernalia of office of the average public office holder in terms of office space, cars and so-called “support staff” – Security Details, Secretary and Typists, Clerks, Messengers (notwithstanding provision of personal computers etc.). Our warped values and warped sense of what official authority and responsibility means, is one of the causes of wastage in Government:
• We build and rebuild headquarter offices (HQs) of our public institutions as if we are “birds”; check the CBN, Federal Secretariats, etc. and see how much space wastage exists therein. The creation of new institutions in Nigeria automatically leads to a perpetual search for funds to build its HQ. No one is giving a thought to the fact that if we modify what we already have, we might in fact have more than enough space to accommodate almost all the current MDAs of government and save the huge sums of money currently spent on lease.
• For a Minister, a Perm Sec or the CEO of Government Agency, there are the following: (i) an Ante Room; (ii) Secretary Room; (iii) the Security Detail Room; (iv) the Main Office – that could be as big as 90 sq. meters the size of (see Perm Sec office at the Bullet Civil Service Secretariat Complex or the Office of the Governor CBN), (v) Private (inner) Room, and (vi) a Private Conference Room!!! I am told that the biggest office of any chief executive in Nigeria is that of the CBN Governor! I thought they used to say that the hood does not make the monk!
Considering that we live in the 21st century where ICT has virtually taken over as the real office,
• what is the relationship between the size of our offices and our efficiency /effectiveness on the jobs?
• Do these offices by their lay-outs lend them to effective supervision and mentoring of subordinates?
• Are they efficient in terms of energy use and use of other resources?
We need a total overhaul of our maintenance culture
We need a total reorientation on the importance of maintenance of national assets – from physical structures, to mechanical equipment and electronic gadgets and instruments. Go to many Federal Government offices, especially those outside Abuja from Federal Secretariats to Stadia, and see how badly run down they all are. How do we reconcile this state of affairs with fact that Optimization is, in actual fact, an innovation strategy domiciled in the principles of Facility Management?
We need a total overhaul of not just the Cabinet organogram of Government but of:
• the Agencies and Parastatals of Government;
• of Office layout;
• paraphernalia of office of political appointees, from security details to special assistants;
We need a thorough appraisal of:
• the quality/integrity of persons appointed into official positions;
• the career management and deployment of officers;
• redundancy management;
• revitalization of the service; and
• the general attitude to the maintenance of government infrastructure and utilities (non-repair of roads and traffic light non-replacement can cause traffic jam, accidents, etc. and lead to wastage of resources of government and the people).
Our Poor Record Keeping
Government does not even know the actual number of staff on its payroll. We are told that we have 120-140 civil servants; and an estimated 1.7 million public servants, service-wide (teachers, nurses, police personnel, para-military officers, officers in covert intelligence assignments, etc.)
We need to Examine our Current Cost- Saving Instruments for their integrity of application.
IPPIS was installed to eliminate payroll fraud of ghost workers; now there are instances where the same IPPIS has become an instrument for perpetrating payroll fraud; Just as there were allegations in the dying days of the last regime that the Due Process in Public procurement had become a rubber stamp for legitimizing padded contracts.
We must Make Good Use of High Quality Directorate level officers in appointing CEOs
This administration should consider the pool of seasoned Directorate level officers in the service, as pool of first choice, to make its appointment into chief executive positions in the agencies and parastatals. My own experience is that agencies and parastatals that have had the benefit of having those with working experience in the public service appointed into their chief executive positions, usually record much less incidences of wastage, abuse of recurrent votes and general fund mismanagement.
Remove Redundant Officers / Offices in abolished or Out-sourced cadres
We need to do away with redundancy as well as officers in out-sourced and/or abolished cadres
Plug Loop holes in the Use of Consultants
Consultancy fees/charges have been an avenue through which the leakages in the system have been perpetrated. We must minimize use of Consultants/Experts and try to build the capacity of the service to carry out many of these functions by embedding/integrating these consultants into the system.
Revitalize the Service with new intakes
The service needs revitalization through the injection of young, technology friendly and moldable graduates of universities and polytechnics. To do that demands that we hone our HRM processes to remove those who should continue in the system.
Avoid Unnecessary Costs in Regular Operations
A primary process in cost-saving is to avoid incurring unnecessary costs in regular operations. This includes, making political parties and the electorate to cooperate with INEC to avoid recurring/unnecessary cost (of repeated logistics, security) in election related activities, etc.
It also includes examining why the FCSC must choose to travel to the States of the federation to conduct screening tests for recruitment.
Addressing Our Conflicting Growth Indices
Consider and compare, for example, our high growth rate with high unemployment and high poverty rates; and the increased number of universities cum university enrolment and increasingly high number of poor quality graduates. – we seem to focus on certificate acquisition at the expense of knowledge and skills
The Human Development Index (HDI) is usually grouped into 4 bands of 47 countries of: Very High; High; Medium and Low HDI categories. Nigeria is ranked 152 out of 187, in the Low HDI category, below Rwanda 151 and only slightly above Yemen 154 and Zimbabwe 156.
Restoring Badly Managed Government Infrastructure and Utilities
Take for example, our improperly paved roads; poor highway signage and markings; potholes that are not repaired, etc. and the attendant incidences of loss of travelling hours, accidents and loss of lives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I wish to say that notwithstanding the concerns raised in this paper about the state of our PACCs, there are areas where optimization is already finding ready application within the public sector. However, in majority of our PACCs, there are numerous structural, cultural and ethical issues and concerns waiting to be addressed and arising from which discussions on optimization amount to nothing more than an esoteric debate. Addressing these structural and ethical issues and the concerns would place our public sector in good stead to justify public sector investment in optimization. Therefore, taking cue from what one of our leaders advised many years ago, I would say that if we must strive to reach the moon (adopt optimization), let us show that we are at least capable of reaching our mouths, to feed ourselves, our households and our neighbours (i.e. capable of adhering to the ethics and values of the public service as enshrined in the Public Service Rules, Financial Regulations and other extant provisions of government, and using these instruments to uphold the public trust, maintain institutional integrity and achieve value for money a.k.a. “do more with less” across all processes and procedures of the service).
I thank you for your kind attention.
Goke Adegoroye, PhD, OON is a former Permanent Secretary.
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