By Abdullahi Mohammed, Abuja
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan said Tuesday that the federal government had no plans to reduce work days for civil servants as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.
Yemi-Esan said this at a media parley to commemorate the 2023 Civil Service Week with a theme “Digitalization of Work Processes in the Public Service: A Gateway to Efficient Resource Utilization and National Development.”
She said civil servants would work full time because the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration ha robust palliatives to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on civil servants.
“We don’t have any plans to reduce working days for civil servants in view of the hike in PMS and cost of transportation. However, a committee has been set up to look into this.
“The committee is currently working on getting gas-powered buses to convey civil servants to and fro. We are also working on the conversion of some vehicles from PMS into gas,” she said.
She said government was also working assiduously on the review of salaries of civil servants for them to just to the current economic realities.
The Head of Service also spoke on the verification exercise under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Personnel Information System (IPPIS), stressing that 69,854 officers have so far been captured in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
She said 1,618 fake/illegal employment letters have been detected during the exercise.
“Prior to the introduction of the current mechanisms put in place to drive the implementation of the IPPIS, the system was bedeviled with considerable leakages and wastes as well as the incessant infiltration of ghost workers etc.
“Once you earn legally, you have no problem with the verification. What we are doing is to remove people who are earning salaries illegally,” she said.
She staff training which used to be regarded as a ‘welfare package‘ for a few lucky ones has now been institutionalised to ensure that the federal civil service a well equipped workforce for effective service delivery.
She said the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation was working on the full digitlisation and open government in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government.
She said the office intends to achieve a minimum of 50% functional official email addresses by 2025 and minimum of 40% automation of ministries’ work processes.
She said the office also intends to achieve a minimum of 60% access to government’s services online and the provision of clean, reliable, affordable and sustainable power supply to guarantee the optimalisation of the digitalization policy.
She said in 2022, the office l presented the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (2021-2025) document also called FCSSIP 25, which she said was “designed to put in place, mechanisms for the re-engineering of the Service for increased productivity, quality service delivery and to remain professional and globally competitive.”