To develop a virile workforce with satisfying post service life through the sustenance of ethical values and effective career and pensions management, the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions has embraced the Service Charter Policy of the Lagos State Government by renewing and emphasising its commitments towards excellent service delivery, through a systematic approach to governance, development of effective, efficient and proactive management skills, sustenance of harmonious labour/industrial relations, with well trained staff committed towards providing customers with needed and relevant information and maximising customer satisfaction through all professional channels available.
The ministry has been driven by the commitment of the Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s quest to make Lagos globally competitive in all sectors. The enviable position that the state has attained today has been driven by the vision of making Lagos, Africa’s Model Mega City, operating as a global economic hub that is safe, secure, functional and productive. The ministry’s vision of being the leading government agency for the development of a result-oriented public service would be achieved through capacity building/career development of public servants, maintenance of peaceful industrial harmony and seamless pension’s administration. The ministerial mandates include development of a virile workforce with satisfying post service life through the sustenance of ethical values and effective career and pension’s management.
One of the notable services we embarked on this year relates to extensive capacity building and manpower training. We secured the governor’s authorisation to pursue and implement a set of ‘outside-the-box’ initiatives that will exponentially expand the execution of the mandates of the ministry in the areas of manpower training while preserving scarce government resources. In addition to the initiatives already approved for the ministry in 2017, these proposed initiatives will herald a novel set of manpower initiatives that will make the target officers of the civil service better suited to meet the modern, evolving and digital-era dynamic expectations of citizens from the government. The initiatives are public engagement trainings, public interests engagement forums; sector-specific specialised trainings; life skills acquisition programmes and exchange programmes.
The structure of the ministry comprises two offices and two parastatals, namely, Office of Establishments and Training (OE&T); Civil Service Pensions Office (CSPO); Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC) and Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC). It is headed by the Commissioner that have Permanent Secretaries as Administrative Heads, while the parastatals are headed by Directors’ General. It can boast of success and benchmark achievements as a result of its commitment towards human capital development, management consultancy, career management and maintenance of harmonious industrial climate. The office is administratively divided into five departments which include Establishments Department, Industrial Relations Department; Training Department; Administration and Human Resources Department and Accounts Department.
The Establishment Department is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring compliance with extant rules and provisions in addition to policy formulation and implementation with the Office of the Head of Service and other core establishment Agencies.
Also in conjunction with the Office of Transformation, Creativity and Innovation, the department carried out an exercise on workforce planning and streamlining of contract appointment at the Lagos Water Corporation. In line with extant provisions, approvals for payment of severance allowance in respect of political office holders who had completed their tenure in office were obtained from the governor. The department compiled and submitted the changes witnessed on establishments matters within the last 50 years in Lagos State towards the celebration of Lagos at 50. In line with the directive and magnanimity of the governor for the replacement of written examinations towards promotions, with structured training, the office supervised the compliance of the directive, service-wide.
The Industrial department engaged in regular working visitations to all industrial unions in the State Public Service including the tertiary institutions in the state. The objective is to foster harmonious relationship between the management of MDAs and Unions in the State Public Service. The initiative is also to sniff out areas of potential conflicts and to nip such conflicts in the bud before they escalate to crises.
The Civil Service Pensions Office (CSPO) on its part is saddled with the core responsibility of processing of terminal benefits of staff who exit the system by way of statutory or voluntary retirement i.e. those who disengage on the “Pay As You Go” Scheme, processing of payment of pensions and gratuities; maintaining comprehensive and up-to-date personnel records for pensioners of the Civil Service; coordinating Civil Service Pension Schemes and funds, organizing verification exercise for pensioners bi-annually; maintaining relations with Lagos State Pensions Commission (LASPEC) among others.
Another department, the Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC) Office is the specialised capacity building institution of the State Government, established in 1994. The vision of the institution is to be the leading Public Service capacity building institution in Africa with a world-class reputation while its mission is to provide human capacity solutions through learning and development initiatives to public service stakeholders using technology-driven resources.
The bailout of Local Government / Parastatals pensioners continues unabated. The administration of Governor Ambode has not relented in the bailout of the Local Government & State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) retirees. The Governor magnanimously gave instructions for State government funds to be utilised to pay retirees from the local governments. The Parastatals that have enjoyed pension bailout include Lagos State Water Corporation; Radio Lagos/Eko F.M; Lagos Television Authority; Lagos State Printing Corporation; Adeniran College of Education; Centre For Rural Development (CERUD); Lagos State Sport Council; Lagos State Agric Input and Supply; Lagos State Council for Arts & Culture; and Lagos State Agric Development Authority.
In total, Lagos State Government’s funding of employees’ pension rights under the Contributory Pension Scheme in a period of 10 years is approximately N138. 41 billion. This Administration commenced and has been able to maintain the trend of paying terminal entitlements of retired employees monthly since it started in August, 2015. Also, LASPEC as one of the trail blazing agency of Lagos State Government has initiated and perfected electronic archiving of records of payments made to retirees of the State for preservation and protection of records in case of any unexpected eventualities among other achievements.
There is however no doubt whatsoever that the officers of the Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions have laboured and toiled to achieve exceptional feats in the first two years of this administration. We are committed to doing even more because we appreciate that well-motivated and well-trained officers of the public service are best suited to conceive of workable government policies and to implement policies in ways that will translate into tangible benefits and dividends for the good people of Lagos State.
- Benson is Commissioner, Ministry of Establishments, Training and Pensions, Lagos