The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday in Abuja approved a new funding structure for the Service Compact with Nigerians (SERVICOM).
SERVICOM was established by the Federal Government to monitor quality of service rendered to the public by government’s ministries and agencies and to ensure that Nigerians got the best from the affected institutions.
Briefing newsmen after Wednesday’s weekly FEC meeting, Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said the approval followed the submission and adoption of the report of a cabinet committee set up to review the SERVICOM initiative.
Wednesday’s FEC meeting was presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Maku said the Council frowned at the situation where SERVICOM continued to attract funding from foreign donor agencies.
“SERVICOM has also over the period not had sustainable budget support and we feel this is not right.
“So, today the Federal Executive Council also approved that SERVICOM, as an agency in every ministry should be chaired by an officer not below the rank of deputy director, who will head the SERVICOM unit in every ministry.
“And that ministries should now make SERVICOM part of their annual budget.
“In the past SERVICOM was simply operating from support from donor agencies and we believe that the unit that is established to render service; to monitor and improve services to the public should not live on the behest of just donor agencies.
“So, government has decided to take up the question of funding of SERVICOM from the public budget line and so, every ministry from next year, in preparing budget, will ensure that SERVICOM is properly funded in all the MDAs.
Maku said the Council also adopted the recommendation by the Committee that there should be a SERVICOM committee in each Ministry, Department and Agency (MDA) to be chaired by the Minister or Head of the Agency.
According to him, the committee will be meeting every month to review progress and challenges.
“In view of the fact that SERVICOM remains an important government instrument to meet challenges of nationwide service failure, Council considered and approved the report of the cabinet committee to review the SERVICOM initiative,’’ he stressed.
The minister added that President Goodluck Jonathan would from now monitor the performances of ministers through the key performance indicators developed by the Ministry of National Planning.
He emphasised said that the ministers’ performances would be measured by the impact made by projects executed by their respective ministries.