Oyo-Ita Launches First Home-Grown Civil Service Reform

Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, on Wednesday launched Nigeria’s first ever home-grown Federal Civil Service reform.

The launch, held in Calabar, Cross River State, was for members of the newly inaugurated Project Management Teams for the 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP).

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Speaking to newsmen shortly after the launch, the Head of Service explained that the Federal Executive Council had in 2017 approved the 3-year FCSSIP.

According to her, the home-grown service plan was actualised by civil servants, and not an idea of the World Bank and other foreign bodies as done in past administrations.

She said the plan crafted by her team of expertise is in line with the Civil Service agenda for improvement in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and the National Strategy for Policy and Service Reforms.

She said unlike past administrations where the country’s economy lost many talents, her administration has taken adequate steps to learn from past failures.

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While charging the PMTs to take the opportunity seriously, Oyo-Ita was upbeat that the new strategy which has a 100 percent chance of success, is crucial to the success of the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.

“This is a Civil Service reform that is home-grown, it is not brought to us by the World Bank or some foreign loaner, it is think-tank output which has resulted in a strategy document that we believe can push the service to a world class level that we have all being praying for,” Oyo-Ita said.

“We crafted this plan along with the civil service agenda for improvement in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and the National Strategy for Policy and Service Reforms, so this implementation plan is working in line with the Economic vision of the country.

“We identified one critical cause of failure of past reforms, we examined the need to have a governance structure, we need to implement these reforms on a day-to-day basis, we also need to micro-manage the actualisation of these reforms.

“It is this project management teams that have been set-up based on the 8 key priority area, and each priority area is being governed by one project management team, brought from across the service.

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“It is a program that have been developed by civil servants and it is going to be implemented by civil servants.”

When asked if the 3-year strategy plan will chart a new course for the Civil Service and reposition it for effective service delivery, the HoS said: “Yes, very very well.”

She continued: “You see one thing that you have to understand is, no matter the lofy plans and visions that government may have, if the people who are meant to be the engine room for all these lofty programs are not being attended to we will not make any headway.

“That is why the socio-economic development in the country has not being at the level where it should be, just as I said earlier it has nothing to do with lack of funding or insufficient fund, the fact is the people to do the work are not being taken care of, there is no capacity building, every year training budget is being reduced.

“So if you don’t take care of your engine room, it is like a car, if you don’t take care of your engine, it will pack up and that is what is happening.

“So we need to address the civil servants and it is from there we will get that world class service we are looking for and it is there that we are going to get to that high ease of doing business index that this administration is working towards.”

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