Obasanjo confirms planned sack in civil service
From Madu Onuorah, Abuja
PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo on Wednesday confirmed the much awaited retrenchment in the civil service.
Also, Obasanjo expressed disgust at the damning report of a commissioned study, which indicated "abysmal decadence and corruption" in the civil service.
The purge, the President stated, would soon begin, hinting that "tired" civil servants would go in order to give room for the employment of new graduates with first class grades.
Obasanjo, at the year's dinner and award ceremony held at the Presidential Villa to mark the Nigeria Civil Service Day, said he was appalled by the contents of reports on self-review pilot studies on some key ministries, which indicated that the current civil service was "abysmally decadent and corrupt."
He said there was need for enhanced efficiency and precision driven civil service system, adding that only young minds could accomplish the vision contained in the Federal Government's reform agenda.
According to him: "To be able to push sufficient changes in the direction of public service capacity building requires that we review and strengthen our management development institutions. Accordingly, I have mandated the Head of Service to immediately embark on a policy of catch them young to bring into the service young graduates from tertiary institutions with first class performance in their colleges. With their ambition, motivation, creativity and capacity to learn, they will be the high flyers that will move the civil service into the contemporary age of precision-driven efficiency and effectiveness.
"I have received reports of a number of pilot ministries, which reinforced the self-review studies undertaken by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service. The results show that the civil service has decayed very badly. It did not retool. Its technology and methods became outdated. Its philosophy became denigrated and its integrity badly compromised and corrupted. The net result was inefficiency, waste, corruption and, in some cases, arrogance," he said.
He added that there would be more investments on skills development, new technologies and training that could be managed in a scientific and enhanced manner.
Obasanjo invited the organised private sector to partner with the civil service for "a robust public-private sector partnership."
He announced that government was discussing with bilateral and multilateral organisations on partnership.
Obasanjo said civil servants must be committed to dismantling the architecture of corruption and waste that had been constructed over the years in the service and the larger society.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, said that the service must imbibe change so that it could perform competently and corruption-free.
"We must be able to deliver service timely, competently and in a most transparent manner," he said.
Ahmed said the government was taking another look at the civil service rules and regulations to ensure prompt service delivery.`*******okay
