Fed civil service to be fully digitalised to modernise service delivery
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Digitalisation of federal civil service operations is proceeding seamlessly and expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2023 (Q1 2023), to modernise and facilitate service delivery and also save the treasury N4.5 billion yearly.
Ibiene Roberts, Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs Permanent Secretary, announced the timeline in Abuja at the formal presentation of the Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) to George Akume the Minister.
She said the SOP is in line with the directives of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF) to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to formally document and present their SOP in hardcopies for ease of reference.
“For institutional memory,” Roberts added, “SOP is a step-by-step instruction that acts as guideline for an employee’s work processes and best describes the activities necessary to complete tasks in a particular schedule.
“It is an aspect of the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) with the mandate to digitise records and automate workflow to achieve overall improvement in information sharing and collaboration across the MDAs.”
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Importance of SOP
“When employees follow the SOP for a particular job, they produce a product that is consistent and predictable,’’ Roberts said, per Nairametrics.
She disclosed the ministry is given the responsibility to hasten SOP development in agencies under its direct supervision for full operation of ECM.
“To do this, the Departmental Champions will be adequately trained to help cascade the SOPs to our agencies.”
Akume said the transformative initiatives of this administration are crucial to ameliorate the challenges faced by civil servants in the discharge of their duties and SOP would promote efficiency and effectiveness in job performance and delivery.
Salary review
President Muhammadu Buhari acknowledged last week the urgent need for a general salary review in the Federal Public Service necessitated by worldwide problems of high inflation amid economic disruption.
But he explained the federal government cannot review salaries for now because of revenue constraints caused by crude oil theft.