Perm Secs Jittery Over Questionaire
FROM MARTINS OLOJA, ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF
FEAR, which Alan Patton observed in his classic, Cry the Beloved Country, "is worse than sorrow" has begun to take hold of the 52 permanent secretaries in the Federal Civil Service.
Reason: the official policy advisers to Ministers are no longer sure of the permanence of their tenure and future in the service.
The Guardian learnt that two major events since July have heightened the state of fear of the chief accounting officers of the public service.
The first warning signal appeared when the new presidential Bureau of Public
Service Reforms (BPSR), set up in March this year to coordinate the service reform, organised a Retreat for the pilot ministries the government had chosen for the take-off of the programme.
The retreat, which took place from July 1-2, 2004 at Nicon-Hilton Hotel, Abuja for permanent secretaries of the ministries of FCT, Finance, National Planning Commission, Budget Office and Federal Civil Service Commission, was the first forum where the implications of Public Service Reform became a scarecrow of some sort.
During the retreat, it was learnt that questions were raised about the worth of some permanent secretaries, who had spent about 10 years without any remarkable impact where they had served.
The permanent secretaries reportedly noticed the second warning signal at the retreat for Federal Permanent Secretaries held at ASCON, Topo, Badagry, Lagos State penultimate week.
It was gathered that the Head of Service, Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed spoke so bluntly the way he never did to his colleagues since he assumed office barely three years ago.
There, Ahmed presented a paper entitled: "Self-Realisation and the Change Process in the Civil Service: The Role of Permanent Secretaries."
The paper, which was not circulated to the press, touched on the expediency and inevitability of reform.
His words: "Generally, the demand for change has been driven by combinations of a number of issues namely: fiscal and budgetary pressures, the pressure from the
Bretton Wood Institutions, the erosion of public confidence in government and state institutions, technological change and the increasing articulated public awareness for improvement in state provided services," among others.
Still contextualising basis for the reform, told the participants "...following the re-establishment of democracy in 1999, the need to pursue public sector reform with greater vigour was recognised as a vehicle for meeting the anxious yearning of the populate for democratic dividends."
He also reminded permanent what the people had felt about them: "The Service was often perceived as corrupt, outdated in technology, lacking in creativity, slow in responding to issues and structurally weak... the performance of permanent secretaries was also seen as uninspiring."
The last straw that heightened the fear came when the Head of Service asked the participants 13 thought-provoking rhetorical questions.
The preamble to the questions: "Let us beam the searchlight on ourselves...to ascertain whether we ourselves are satisfied with the performance of the Public Service in recent years. Shall we ponder on the following;
- Does the Service not share in the blame of uncompleted projects dotted all over the country
- Are our people getting basic services as and when required
- Has the Service over the years, not compromised or negated creativity, innovation, hard work and patriotism in the service
- Has the Service, not encouraged unbridled waste in public expenditure over the years
- How often do we accommodate and exploit the greed and excesses of our political leaders to fester our own greed and excesses
- Have the skills in the Service kept pace with modern technology
- How efficient is our record keeping system
- Has the Service sufficiently adapted to modern work methods and management practices
- Have we been able to identify the incubators of ghost workers within our system and flush them out
- Can we say corruption is not widespread in the Service
- Is the Service driven by performance and merit
- Does the Service have the right mix of skills to cope with the challenges of national development and sustainable democracy
- Have Permanent Secretaries always exhibited exemplary leadership, technical depth and sound judgment in discharging their duties
Alhaji Ahmed noted that Permanent Secretaries could not exonerate themselves from the rot that has afflicted the public service because they are: Chief Policy Adviser to the Minister; Administrative Head of the Ministry; Accounting Officer of the Ministry; and member of the Head of Service top management team (Committee of Permanent Secretaries).
The final tone for the killer-punch in the 21-page paper was on page 20 when to the surprised audience, Ahmed said "the whole essence of self-realisation, self-appraisal, self-criticism, which will invariably call for self-discipline and commitment is... (when)... we move from placing too much emphasis on process to the actualisation of real outputs and, indeed, far reaching and positively impacting outcomes."
He seemingly pre-empted the participants from accusing some ministers of frustrating their efforts, by stating, "remember that nobody can make you inferior or incompetent unless you allow him the chance."
It was learnt that the career advice that set the permanent secretaries thinking about their uncertain future in the service was in the last paragraph of the provocative paper.
"The worst fears of the permanent secretaries were confirmed at the end of the four-day retreat, when they were each given a five-page form to fill. It is entitled: "Declaration of Specialisation (Core Competencies) in the Public
Service."
The form, which opens with a biographical page, asks the permanent secretaries to indicate "In-service Training Benefited from with dates; types of training; where the training was held and duration and date."
The form also has column for "working experience."
The first frightening poser comes on page four: "In which area(s) can you refer to yourself as a specialist List the core competencies you have acquired to justify this."
The "Specialisation question" requested that: "Based on your working experience, specialisation and core competences, which ministry, extra-ministerial department or agency do you think you are best suited."
The only harmless question there is: "What are your candid views about the on-going reforms in the Civil Service"
Some permanent secretaries think the last item in the questionnaire is more devastating and heartbreaking. The question says: "In the event of government introducing a Public Service Reform Intervention that is contrary to your conviction, what would you do and why"
It was confirmed that the permanent secretaries had Wednesday, 11 August as deadline for the submission of the forms to the office of the Head of
Service.
Meanwhile, the Head of Service has approved the selection of seven Permanent Secretaries as "Change Agents to serve as Technical Team that will assist the new Bureau of Public Service Reforms to achieve its goal."
The Director-General of the Bureau,
Dr. Goke Adegoroye disclosed the names of the "Super" Permanent Secretaries on Thursday last week after the Head of Service, Alhaji Ahmed had officially opened the new office complex of the Bureau in Asokoro, Abuja.
They include Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed (Works), Dr. Muazu Babangida Aliyu (National Planning), Mr. Olusegun Ogunkua
(Agriculture and Natural Resources), Hajia Amina Lawal-Alli (Petroleum Resources), Mr. Steven Oronsaye (Presidency/Office of the President), Dr. Haruna Sanusi (Finance) and Dr. Layi Ogunbambi (Management Services/Office of the Head of Service).
After unveiling the Mission and Vision plaques of the special Bureau, Ahmed said "the Bureau is the engine room of the Reform project, the think-tank and every one working there must note that they should be different as they must be versatile, focused, disciplined and patriotic."
