The Head of the Federal Civil Service, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, warned on Tuesday that civil servants cannot continue to do things in the old order and expect the service to provide new results.
Yemi-Esan made the above statement in Abuja on Tuesday, when the African Governance Initiative (AIG) formally handed over the Federal Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) Office of the Head of Civil Service.
She explained that in today’s technological advancement and digital age, the civil service system cannot lag behind or operate in isolation.
She underscored the need for civil servants to embrace new ways of doing things to ensure effective service delivery.
According to her; “We certainly cannot continue to do things in the old order and expect new results. To keep abreast therefore, the Civil Service must continue to be dynamic and innovative,” she said.
“What we are witnessing here today therefore is a clear testament of our resolve to embrace new ways of doing things that promote the delivery of services in an effective and efficient manner, and evolve to a world class service towards the realisation of a new civil service of our dreams.
“It therefore behooves us as custodians of public interest to avail ourselves of opportunities such as the SOPs will present to us to improve our capacities and competencies for enhanced productivity and self- development instead of always depending on support from the system,”.
To enthrench digitalisation and efficient service delivery in the service, Yemi-Esan said her Office in partnership with AIG, has initiated plans to obtain relevant International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification which is an independent, non- governmental, international organization that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems.
She further said her office was also working with SERVICOM to ensure compliance and effective implementation of SOPs across Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).
Explaining the objectives of SOPs to the civil service, Yemi-Esan said, “the main objective of SOPs is to develop an effective system that complies with industry-specific regulations and standards, to significantly reduce or avoid operational errors as well as unwanted work variations.
“SOPs also ensure the
repeatability and consistency of the performance of any type of process.
“It helps employees to perform complicated tasks: ones in which remembering every detail of a procedure can be difficult or in which a precise sequence of steps is essential.
“It is instructive to note that in view of the importance of the SOP Manuals to the seamless implementation of the Enterprise Content Management Solution (ECMS) and in line with international best practices, the Office decided to take the lead and has gone further to approve the immediate Service-wide development of SOPs starting with four selected MDAs as pilot.
“These MDAs are the Federal Civil Service Commission, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, State House and the Federal Ministry of Transportation.”
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of AIG, Mr. Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, lamented that over the years, Nigerian civil service had not developed SOPs for implementation.
Aig-Imoukhuede stressed the need for digitalisation of the civil service for efficient service delivery, adding that great institutions across the world operate on standards.
He further explained that AIG had partnered the OHCSF in the planning and developing of SOPs, noting that it would entrench continuity and sustainable development in the civil service.
