The Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu, has expressed the federal government’s commitment towards diligent replication, effective and efficient implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) at all levels of management in the Ministry.
Idowu made this commitment, in Abuja, during the opening ceremony of the 10-day replication workshop on SOP organized by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation OHCSF for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs in the country.
In a press statement signed by Imaobong Udoh for Director Information in the Ministry, she acknowledged the development of a strategic document by the OHCSF back in 2016 known as the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2017-2020) with eight priority areas.
Idowu recalled that the document had some implementation challenges, some of which were: lack of performance measures, the low adoption rate of digitization due to poor infrastructure and widespread use of manual methods, and limited data-driven decision making, among others.
Committed to overcome past mistakes, the Perm Sec said that the OHCSF went ahead and successfully prepared the current version of the (FCSSIP 2021 – 2025) plan, which was ready for publication, pointing out that the current plan had six priority areas, which were: Digitization, Capacity Building and Talent Management, Performance Management, Innovations, Culture, Data and Analysis.
She explained that digitization was one of the critical areas in the achievement of the objectives of FCSSIP as it improved enterprise content management with digitized records, automated workflow and overall improvement sharing information and enhance collaboration across the various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
“The introduction of automation of workflow in MDAs thus necessitated the development of implementable Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in all MDAs. OHCSF has successfully developed its own SOP and is replicating the same across MDAs.”
Idowu further stated that some of the targets of the current plan were savings of N120b from cleaning HR data on IPPIS, improving overall transparency and administration of HR, annual savings of N4.5b from digitizing contents in all MDAs.
This, she said will improve content sharing, training of 64,000 civil servants through revamped core modules of SMART-P resulting in improved skills and competencies, mentoring 500 future leaders through LEAD-P with a “Presidential cohort” identified and 42 MDAs with performance management system, among others.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Director, Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, Mrs Adesola Oluyide, said that SOP was one of the tools for successful implementation of FCSSIP (2021 – 2025) which, when well prepared, would ensure effective and efficient re-engineering of the Ministry.
She implored all participants to give their maximum cooperation as their inputs were imperative in the replication process and the preparation of the revised implementable Standard Operating Procedures.
