The former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Stephen Oronsaye has revealed that both politicians and the Civil Service at both the Federal and state levels still lack the requisite capacity to deliver on government agenda; a deficiency which he said will affect the correction of flaws in the nation’s development.
Oronsaye said this yesterday while addressing the question: ‘Do the Federal and State Civil Services possess the capacity to deliver on Government’s Agenda?’, at the on-going 41st Conference of Civil Service Commissions in the Federation in Port Harcourt; in which he stated that “the perception is that in many respects, capacity is still lacking in the Service.
“Even among the political leadership, in this case the Ministers and State Commissioners, Civil servants are perceived as being incompetent. This is not far from the truth. As I had previously noted at another forum, the vision behind the Public Service Reform was to create a ‘Public Service that works for the people’.
“With the mission of fashioning a Civil Service that is performance and results-oriented, customer-driven, investor- friendly, professional, technologically sensitive, accountable, fostering partnership with all stakeholders and business and the enhancement of overall national productivity”.
“However, in view of the skill gap that existed in the Federal Civil Service at the time, we made deliberate effort at correcting the anomaly by instituting mandatory training for officers.