‘HOW TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY, TAME CORRUPTION IN CIVIL SERVICE’

The Federal Civil Service Strategic and Implementation Plan on Culture Diagnostic Survey Report (2017-2020) has harped on merit-based recruitment, promotion and reward system to engender productivity in the bureaucracy.

The document also revealed that corruption would be eradicated or reduced in the service through adherence to due process, accountability and punishment of offenders.

Speaking at the launch of the report yesterday in Abuja, Head of Service of the Federation (HoSF), Mrs. Winifred Ekanem Oyo-Ita, stated that the deed, compiled by an eight-man team across the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), indicates a commitment to organisational renewal with a vision to building a modern public service system that provides a world-class service for sustainable national development.

‘’It also envisioned a change in behaviour from bureaucratic to an entrepreneurial result-oriented and innovative civil service. Its primary goal is to achieve a culture of change across the civil service through a number of strategic initiatives which includes growing a new culture, emphasizing increased employee productivity, improved customer-client relationship and enhanced attitude to work,” she said.

Oyo-Ita stated that the Culture Diagnostic survey was a product of conscientious consultation among relevant stakeholders on analysis of the baseline behaviour and culture in the service and definition of the core values that deconstruct what an efficient, productive, incorruptible and citizen-centred (EPIC) civil servant should be.

She explained that the EPIC’s culture transformation initiative provides an enabling platform to foster collaboration, improve employee engagement, enhance performance and ensure improved service delivery.

‘This initiative is considered critical to the successful implementation of the other priority initiatives. I am therefore confident that the results of this survey will generally enhance the successful actualisation of the goals and objectives of the FCsSIP – 2020.”

Head of the Implementation Team and Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office (SPSO), Dr. Magdalene Ajani, said a service-wide Cultural Diagnostic Survey (CDS) was deployed through Survey Monkey where 5,876 employees completed the survey.

She noted: ‘’Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means were used to summarise survey responses where appropriate. Statistical methods of group comparisons were conducted to examine if responses to survey questions differed by gender, age groups, grade levels, educational qualifications and length of service in the federal civil service.”

SOURCE: GUARDIAN