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20 Factors Driving Public Service Reform FROM MARTINS OLOJA ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF THE ongoing reforms in the federal public service are being driven by 20 critical factors in the government's resolve to "re-professionalise the service." Prominent among the factors is a perceived "bloatedness" of junior workers that account for 70 per cent of the workforce. Another factor pushing the reform agenda is "the pervading atmosphere of non-creative engagement of the remaining 30 per cent at the officer level in productive assignments." These revelations are contained in a recent document released to top public officers, quoting the NEEDS Strategy Document that forms the fulcrum of the economic policy of the Obasanjo administration. The document, prepared following what it calls "a service-wide study conducted" for government by the Management Services Office (MSO) in the office of the Head of Service, listed the 20 critical factors that drive the reforms as: The junior (unskilled) staffs on GL 01-06 constitute about 70 per cent of the entire workforce. There is non-creative engagement of the remaining 30 per cent at officer level in productive assignments. Talk of over-bloated civil service is therefore a farce as the total staff strength of the Federal Civil Service is about 160,000 (those that have records with the Federal Civil Service Commission excluding agencies and Extra-ministerial offices) Grade Level 15 and above constitute only two per cent of the total workforce. Grade Level 01-14 is dominated by females, who constitute about 60 per cent of the workforce. The Service is afflicted already by aging population whereby about 60 per cent of staff are within the age bracket of 40 years and above. Estimated 70-80 per cent of Federal Government budget has always gone towards running the federal bureaucracy of less than 200,000 workers. Despite the above elements and pay rise of 250-350 per cent between 1999 and 2000, the current remuneration package of the civil servants is still inadequate. There is an undetermined number of "ghost workers" in the system, which is symptomatic of poor personnel records and payroll control systems. There is stagnation, especially at the higher levels of the Service, leading to loss of morale (this is so because the 'old soldiers' keep changing their age, etc.) Systematic training that needs identification and the building and upgrading of staff skills have been absent. Training in most Ministries, Departments and Agencies has not been budgeted for. The existing training institutions have themselves been run down. Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) do not have mission and vision statements, work programmes, organisation charts, corporate and individual schedules of function and duties. Virtually all key public institutions are under-sourced, under-skilled and lack the capacity to capitalize on technological changes and to modernise. Working tools required to operate a modern management system for efficient and effective service delivery, have been inadequate. Professionalism, merit and esprit de corps in the Service have been significantly eroded. Policy-making has become a matter of ad hoc responses to urgent problems without rigorous long-term policy analysis, consultation and monitored control. Budget system has become characterised by over-estimated revenues and under-estimated expenditure. The procurement system has been abused in many Ministries, Departments and Agencies and has neither been transparent to bidders nor to the public. The position paper emphasises that: "a basic catalyst for realising the noble objective of... macro-economic stability, ... accelerated privatisation and liberalisation of the economy... governance reforms, institutional strengthening, transparency, accountability and anti-corruption reforms, reforms of public expenditure, budgeting and accounting reforms is a reprofessionalised civil service." In the interim, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Goke Adegoroye says that the Federal Government has not changed the retirement age of 60 years or 35 years in service. He was reacting to the publication of The Guardian last Sunday, which said that the government was planning to retire 50-year-olds or officers, who have put in about 30 years service. But Adegoroye noted that the clarification was without prejudice to the other extant (rules) factors that could lead to early retirement. He catalogued the factors as "ill-health, gross misconduct, faulty records and other conditions, which by virtue of extant rules, empower the Federal Civil Service Commission to retire officers early." Adegoroye enumerated the officers who may be compulsorily retired or relieved of their posts as follows: Officers with ever changing birth-dates whose records in service cannot be reconciled with their undergraduate birth records. Officers who use government resources/facilities to foster their private interests. Those who live in government quarters and collect salaries at the end of the month without discernible schedule of duties or assignments carried out or their accomplice superior officers and/or directors that harbour them. Those who engage in unauthorised studies (part-time or full time). Senior officers (GL 15-17) who are not able to account for subordinates on their nominal rolls in terms of daily attendance and tasks accomplished. Adegoroye's advice is that: "Such category of officers that cut across age and grade levels in the public service from 20-59 years and GL 03-Permanent Secretaries... should in their own interests quickly submit their letters of notice of retirement or resignation as they stand to lose their entitlements if the ongoing staff audit exercise catches up with them." It was gathered last week that the planned "right-sizing" has caused some disquiet within the service system just as the issue has reportedly divided the ranks of even the Permanent Secretaries, "who are no longer sure of the permanence of their offices" in this connection. The main issue, according to sources at the Federal secretariat, is between the "conservatives and the Doves" that do not want the reform agenda, and the "radical Hawks" who want the agenda to move on even faster than its present pace.

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