Civil Servants have been urged to improve on their efficiency and productivity at the workplace.
This new mandate, which involves a peer review mechanism, as part of the reform process in the civil service, according to the Office of Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF), was instituted to ensure self-evaluation and continuous improvements in the operation and delivery of the ministries, departments and agencies.
According to the Head of the Office, Alhaji Bukar Goni Aji, “the process ensures that Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Department are scheduled at intervals and peer-reviewed by their colleagues under the leadership of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.”
While delivering a speech at a recently concluded two-day 37th Annual Conference of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN), tagged: ‘The Interplay of Risk Management and Compliance Issues in Corporate Governance” in Lagos, Goni, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Alhaji Ismaila Aliyu, further revealed that OHCSF “is currently undergoing reforms in collaboration with some of our development partners- the Department for International Development, U.K., accordingly.”
He in the meantime emphasised that ICSAN had a role to play in ensuring that its chartered secretaries and administrators in the Civil Service now, and in the future, possess the highest standards of conduct and performance to contribute to the goal of nation-building.
In her presentation, the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ms. Arunma Oteh, who delivered the key note address at the conference, charged stakeholders to collectively see themselves as gate keepers in enshrining good corporate governance in the country, adding that it is vital to attracting foreign direct investment into the country.
In her statement, “Good corporate governance can enhance investors’ trust. Ultimately, good corporate governance contributes to sustainable economic development by enhancing the performance of companies and increasing their access to global capital.
“Poor corporate governance on the other hand weakens the companies’ protection and may lead to financial difficulties, fraud and even extinction.”
In his welcome address, the President and Chairman of Council of ICSAN, Dr. Abdu Suleyman Ndanusa, mentioned that “the institute in collaboration with SEC had initiated a scheme to evolve a Corporate Governance Index (CGI).
According to Ndanusa, “this initiative is expected to benchmark and evaluate key performance indicators against corporate governance principles.”
Tag: MDAs
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Oteh, Ndanusa others task MDAs on service delivery
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MDAs to use e-channels in salaries, pensions’ remittances
To address revenue leakages in the government and private sectors of the economy, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is encouraging ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to ensure salaries, pensions, suppliers and taxes payment are done with e-payment channels. The policy, however, applies to organisations with more than 50 employees.
The CBN in a circular said the process will reduce time and costs of transactions, minimise leakages in government revenue receipts and provide reliable audit trails, thereby making the payments system comply with global standards.
The is to save cost, promote transparency and accountability in governance and increase internally generated revenue (IGR). The e-payment policy is also expected to ensure confidentiality of information of e-payment of taxes, salary, pension and suppliers.
It said, henceforth, payment instructions and associated schedules are no longer to be transmitted to banks by public and private sector organisations through unsecured channels such as paper-based mandates, flash drives, compact discs and email attachments, among others.
The transactions must be routed through bank approved electronic platform which transmits the instruction to debit a payer’s account and credit a beneficiary’s bank account, mobile account, electronic wallet or any other electronic channels.
It shall include the ability of a payer to independently monitor and obtain electronic feedback on the status of any payment, at any time without depending on any third party, manual or semi-manual means.
Draft guidelines that will ratify the policy have been sent to commercial banks and payment service providers. The exercise is in line with its powers as provided in the CBN Act, 2007, Section 47, Sub-section 2(2d).
It said the policy fully aligns with the core objectives of the National Payment Systems Vision 2020 (NPSV) which is to ensure the availability of safe and effective mechanisms for conveniently making and receiving all types of payments from any location and at any time through multiple channels.
The CBN said all public and private sector organisations who maintain relationship with employees, pensioners, suppliers and taxpayers and other entities are considered as relevant stakeholders required to work together for the success of the policy.
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Lagos Assembly vows to sanction erring MDAs
As the Lagos State House of Assembly embarks on Y2012 consideration exercise of the Auditor General’s Report of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), it has vowed to do a thorough work and sanction any government agency found culpable.
The Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts, Bolaji Yusuf Ayinla, said this over the weekend at the Assembly Complex in Ikeja.
“We are trying to let them (MDAs) know that a proper retirement has to be done, because the financial rules and regulations of Section 603 says all invoices and receipts must be attached to the vouchers.
“We believe this time around, no one should be found wanting if they follow the Auditor General’s report of 2011. They are trying to comply with what we stipulated unlike the past reports,” Ayinla said.
He explained that the committee would later give a detailed report on the floor of the House. He said, “We will submit the report, debate it extensively in the House before it becomes our resolution.”
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MDAs, others owe PHCN N3.174b
CUSTOMERS are owing the Ikeja Business Unit of the Power Holding Company (PHCN) N3,173,910,457.47, the Business Manager, Lateef Olaleye has said.
Speaking during a customers’ consultative forum in Lagos, Olaleye said payment of the debt would enable the unit to improve on its service delivery.
He said: “We at Ikeja Business Unit have been trying to ensure that we satisfy our customers in every way possible. I, therefore, appeal to all electricity debtors to please settle their outstanding. It is only when customers settle their bills as and when due that we will be able to render the best of services.”
He said Ministries, Departments and Agencies owe N2.4billion, while non-maximum demand customers owe N778.2million.
Olaleye said the rate of vandalism of PHCN’s equipment has increased within the unit. “Vandalism of PHCN installations, especially in the Government Reserved Area (GRA), has increased, adding that Ikeja has become a cankerworm, which has assumed a personality of its own.
He said in the past four months, the Unit has recorded the highest vandalism of nine transformer substations. Oba Akinjobi 300kva substation was vandalised thrice in March, April and May, while Remi Fani-Kayode 500KVAsubstation was vandalised on April 8, and after the vandalised materials were replaced, the vandals came again two days later on April 10, and stole the replaced cables and other substation materials.
He said on July 2, they stole virtually all the materials in the same substation, including 20 metres of 150mm2x4 single core cable, adding that another theft was recorded on March 7 at Ladoke Akintola 500KVA substation when the thieves carted away eight metres of 150mm2x4 core cable, cable sockets and ferrules. He said GRA Local and Ladipo Bateye were also affected.
The vandals destroyed equipment on May 8 and June 10.
He said the management has been doing its best to reduce vandalism in the unit.
“But I thank members of the community development association (CDA) in the GRA and their security committee for their unrelenting efforts in trying to put an end to this malaise. I also thank the DPO of Area F Police Station for giving us all necessary assistance. I appeal to well-meaning Nigerians to assist us in fighting these vandals,” he added.
Olaleye also noted that though the quality of service has not reached that level where PHCN workers can rise and click glasses for job well done, the utility firms are making efforts to see it happen.
He said there are occasions where some areas do not without electricity supply for hours or days probably due to obsolete equipment. poles.
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Reps to investigate high domestic borrowing
The House of Representatives on Thursday mandated its Committee on Aids, Loans and Debt Management to investigate the rising domestic public borrowing by state governments, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
It also mandated the committee to conduct a public hearing, collate debts owed by the Federal Government to local contractors and recommend ways to settle them.
The committee is expected to report back to the House within three weeks.
The resolution was sequel to a motion moved by Rep. Adeyinka Ajayi (ACN-Osun) which was adopted without debate.
According to him, domestic debt profile of the nation stands at N6 trillion while foreign debt is N1 trillion as at March.
Ajayi said that according to the Budget Office of the federation, debts owed local contractors and financial institutions by governments and MDAs was over N74 billion as at October 2012.
The legislator said that as at February 2011, the federal government owed contractors handling projects for the ministry of water resources over N23 billion.
He also said that the Police Service Commission allegedly owed its contractors more than N30 billion. “This debt accumulation mode of operation by MDAs has adverse consequences on the economy,” he said.
He said the alleged accumulation of over $5 billion (about N750bn) debt owed contractors had compelled the MDAs to enter into a forward sale agreement to the tune of $3 billion (about N450bn).
Ajayi said the local contractors could have gone to court but for fear of being blacklisted by government they backed out.
“There is urgent need for a holistic strategy and transparent government policy to verify and settle debts owed local contractors within the shortest time possible,” he said.
Meanwhile, the House has approved the amendment to the 2013 Appropriation Act of N4.9 trillion.
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Fed Govt recovers N34b from illegal MDA accounts
• Orders full execution of new payment system
About N34billion has been recovered out of N58billion traced to illegal accounts being operated by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the Minister of Finance, and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.
She explained that the proceeds were revenues generated by the MDAs, but diverted instead of remitting them into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) Account maintained at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The minister disclosed these to newsmen in Abuja yesterday at the inauguration of two committees on Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), and the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS). She assured that the Federal Government will take further measures to ensure that the government gets what is due to it.
“We had to act fast as agencies that are revenue generating refused to comply with the provision of remitting 25 per cent of such funds to the treasury. We pleaded with them, tried to dialogue with them, but it was not working,” she said, adding, “so we had to take some drastic measures. We have so far recovered N34billion of such monies and have factored it into cash backing for second quarter release for budget 2013.”
The Federal Ministry of Finance had last month disclosed that some revenue generating agencies in collusion with banks, were withholding about N58 billion, but not remitted to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
It threatened that effective June 17, 2013, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, will close such accounts in all banks. This process of systematic closure, the Ministry stated, would continue until all monies that should be in the Consolidated Revenue Fund are retrieved.
Okonjo-Iweala said, “rather than comply, the agencies and banks, through their lawyers, have engaged in all manner of legal subterfuges to ensure that monies which are due to the Federal Government are not remitted.
“The objective of this conspiracy against the national interest, is to keep government monies indefinitely in accounts earning interest for individuals at the expense of the Federal Government and the Nigerian people,” stressing that the federal government “is determined that this unacceptable practice must end forthwith.”
She said the government has consequently ordered the full operationalisation of the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS), and the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS), by December this year.
She said 58 per cent of the federal budget is now being implemented through the GIFMIS platform, adding that by the end of the year, the entire budget implementation is expected to be done through the same platform to ensure accountability.
With regards to IPPIS, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said the government has been “able to capture 215 MDAs and saved a total of N119billion, and has equally discovered about 46,000 ghost workers. She explained that the idea is to capture the remaining 321 MDAs, saying by the time the remaining MDAs were captured, “we would have saved more for the government.”
She said these two initiatives have assisted the government, “in curbing corruption and the introduction of fake names into the payroll system, as well as modernise the way government handles its finances.”
In his remarks, the Acountant-General of the Federation and a member of the committee, Jonah Otunla, said GIFMIS was introduced with the aim of improving the acquisition, allocation and utilisation of public funds.
He said the committees, represent a good platform in modernising government finances and reducing incidences of government borrowing.
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Ministry launches service charter
IN line with the Lagos state government mandate to the civil servants in the state to imbibe a culture of service delivery, the different ministries and departmental agencies in the state have since set machinery in motion to actualise the set objectives.
One of the MDAs identified as a driver of the service delivery mandate is the Ministry of Health, which only recently launched its Service Charter initiative.
Addressing staff at the official launch, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris explained that even though the provision of quality service, building of hospitals and training staff are very important, they are not enough if the people healthcare providers’ serves are not satisfied with the services rendered.
Idris pointed out that the Service Charter is a basis for healthcare consumers to demand for quality healthcare services, to communicate the core functions and value of healthcare providers to them as well as to provide information on the spectrum of services, commitment, obligation, clients’ right and obligations.
“This Charter provides a basis for Lagosians to demand quality health care services as it allows them the right to do so. The Charter communicates our core functions and values to our customers, provides information on the spectrum of our services, commitments, principles, obligations, clients’ rights and obligations as well as mechanism for seeking redress,” the Commissioner.
Speaking earlier, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public Health, Dr Yewande Adeshina observed that the relentless zeal by the state government to attain the status of Africa’s model city has seen several efforts and initiatives combined to achieve the noble ambition of taking public services to international level.
Expatiating, she said the charter is designed to provide equity in employment and good governance for all and to provide a public service that responds to the needs of all the people in Lagos State adding that when fully operational, the Service Charter will alleviate real and perceived difficulties experienced by the public at large in accessing government service windows, and by extension, institutionalize the desired professionalism in the public service.
Echoing similar sentiments, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Olugbile said it is responsibility of every worker irrespective of their social status to deliver quality services at all times in line with the ethics of their profession.
In a brief remark at the occasion, Akaoma, a staff of PATHS2, a DFID-funded project, lauded Service Charter as a bold step.
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Cutting MDAs; UNESCO’s 26%; ‘Amnesty’ for amputees? FRSC: the new police?
Streamlining Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) is welcome if money saved improves infrastructure in education, health, security and power. To free its citizens from the financial demon of electricity power insufficiency and failure, Nigeria urgently needs 100,000Mw. We should meet UNESCO’s 26% of budget invested in education infrastructure. The MDA cuts needs similar cuts in obscene political ‘Salaries and Perks’ which are ‘SAPping’ Nigeria dry. How about part-time legislators?
Amnesty is not just amnesty pay-outs to retired bombers. How about ‘Amnesty for Amputees’ with pay-outs for all bomb victims? Amnesty strategies should go with compensation and care for amputees and other victims.
The North under-developed the South through federal manipulation and forgot to develop itself to catch up with the stunted South. Where is that money? If Ibori and Alams had billions what did other governors have? There are few saints, military or civilian, North or South of the Rivers Niger and Benue. Happily the North embraces the train after killing it for 30 years of road transport. Kano announced a 4-year Chinese construction of intra-city monorail. This will be a near-replica of Lagos State’s ‘Jakande-rail’ truncated by Buhari/Babangida at a cost of $183m for breach of contract 30 years ago. Forgive me if I do not clap for ‘progressive’ Kano. Better get Buhari’s permission. But perhaps being Kano, you do not need it, abi?
Congratulations to government for the Ore-Benin road. Friends said they ‘did the road in an hour instead of the 5-24 hours last year’. Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Minister of Works, can take off her orange overalls and stop weeping on NTA. However with good roads come responsibility to drive safely, conscious of one’s cargo, passengers and other road users. The loss of between 45-80 precious Nigerian lives is a blood-stained testimony to the need for less haste and more speed control. Unmindful of tyres, obstacles or state of mind of the driver, high speed kills worldwide and inflammable cargo like petrol is begging to ignite. I have always dreaded passing through Ogere during those endless stand-till go-slows. How many of the thousands of us stuck there would be burnt in a holocaust if 1 or 1000 of those tankers had caught fire or been maliciously ignited to cover-up a petrol theft? Such a conflagration, funeral pyre, would have been seen by the cosmonauts in space just as the Ogere go-slow is a talking-point for pilots on the Lagos-Abuja and Lagos-London air route! The FRSC struggled for 30 years with Ogere before December. Can NISER calculate the cost of ‘Ogere Traffic Mismanagement’ in financial losses and the trillions of man-hours? It is only when, in two minutes, you drive through a nightmare like Ogere or a deadly pothole, where you spent countless hours of misery during 30 years, that you look back in anger at those who refused to make the road passable for 30 years. So as we clap today, we remember the suffering and death we have endured due to government and MDA maximum incompetence and a lack of love for Nigeria.
Potholed roads injure Nigerians including Great Achebe and claim lives but so do smooth new roads. But at a point we blame the drivers not the road. Tanker and trailer drivers seem above the law with ‘might is right’, wrong lane driving, poor parking and overloaded axles. For the commercial vehicles driven with a death wish, NURTW has been more efficient at providing the fifth column army for violent party politicking than queuing, driving within speed limits and obeying the Highway Code. Infringements are more often ‘bribed’ and it seems ‘FRSC stop and search’ has crept into the vacuum left by cancelling the police checkpoint. The FRSC must reverse this public perception to further justify the recent award from NASS and international outreach plans.
In Ibadan, just before the Secretariat junction coming from UCH, there is a daily 7am FRSC ‘Road Marshals checkpoint’. Perhaps they have the highest moral goals. But if I was a commercial driver, I would feel annoyed and destabilised at the delay of a methodical ‘particulars and vehicle inspection’. At that time ‘FRSC operation Keep Moving’ is better than FRSC ‘Go Slow’ particulars check. Are they authorised? The authorisation should be withdrawn as it is giving FRSC a bad name. I have been flagged down on the expressway for ‘particulars check’ on 10 occasions to fill ‘a quota of arrests’. Once, unsolved murdered late Uncle Bola Ige was my only passenger. As a foundation FRSC Road Marshal, I believe this is a misapplication of powers and responsibility of FRSC. FRSC cannot become the new police checkpoint and FRSC should not allow its staff, from boredom, lack of supervision, seeking financial gain, wickedness or ‘quota catching’ to take up checkpoint duty cancelled by IGP Abubakar! If they do that near Secretariat what happens in the hinterland? Keeping FRSC’s reputation clean is a glorious accolade for FRSC management. So far the NSCDC seems, in public perception, the cleanest organisation. There is room for more ‘My oga[s] at the top’ of the honesty tree. Forgive that man. At least he is honest. As roads improve, educating tanker, trailer and NURTW drivers, enforcing right hand driving, speed limits, parking off the road, axle weights, and holding waking/services for the dead road users in the motor park where the NURTW vehicle originated, will become more important than ‘particulars checks’ for cutting deaths!
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‘Perm Secs, Heads of MDAs delay salary payment’
• ‘Workers pay placed in fixed deposit’
Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and banks have been accused of being liable for the delay of civil servants’ salaries across the country.
The accounting officers of some MDAs are said to have connived with bank officials to withhold workers’salaries in fixed deposit accounts to yield interest before eventually releasing the money to the workers midway into the month.
While the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting was going on last week, some angry civil servants came to the venue to monitor proceedings and confirm if the month’s allocation would be distributed on schedule.
Some of the civil servants, who spoke to The Nation, lamented that their pay was being delayed for no reason. He added that the delay has been on for some time.
When contacted, an official of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF), who did not wish to be named, admitted that they had heard of the delays in workers’salaries. He however, exonerated the AGF of any complicity. The source added that the OAGF has been remitting workers’ salaries 48 hours after it gets the Authority to Incur Expenditure (AIE) to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to remit to the various accounts.
The official stated that since the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the Federal Government last year, it was impossible for them to withhold any disbursements that had been duly cleared for payment.
Also, an official of the CBN said the apex bank processes such payments within 48 hours and transfers them to various banks to credit the accounts of the workers with them.
Those fingered in the alledged scam are some Permanent Secretaries and heads of parastatals, who are allegedly working with bank officials to keep the funds in fixed deposit accounts before finally releasing such to the workers.
The issue of delayed workers’ salaries has been a recurring problem in the country. Before the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and after the introduction of Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) designed to tackle this problem, the erstwhile Minister of Finance, Mr Olusegun Aganga, had said that workers’ salaries would be paid on the 20th of every month.
Also, at the FAAC meeting, J. M. Ajewole, who represented the Director of Petroleum Resources (DPR), disclosed that “the total amount transferred to the Federation Account by the CBN in February 2013 was N83,041,945,817.06.”
This amount is remitted on behalf of the DPR by the CBN into the Federation Account.“This amount included N46,686,475.93 NESS remittance credited by CBN into Miscellaneous Oil Revenue Account,” Ajewole said.
He indicated that N82,995,279,359.13 “was collected in February 2013. This showed a positive variance of N21,530,279,359.13 only, or 35 per cent above the expected budget figure for the month of February 2013.”
This increase “was due to higher prices of crude oil in the international markets than the $72billion used for last year’s approved budget and some MCA royalty oil and gas payments for January this year was credited in the month under review,” he added.
The DPR executive told members of the FAAC that “when compared to the collection of N67,384,414,882.27 in January 2013, the sum of N82,995,279,359.13 for February 2013 was higher by N15,610,864,476.86 or 18.81 per cent.”
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‘DG Budget did not direct MDAs to ignore 2013 appropriation’
THE Budget Office of the Federation has denied ever instructing Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ignore the recently signed 2013 budget.
A statement from the Budget Office signed by Francis O. Ojiah, Director, Administration, Budget Office of the Federation, said “at no time since the passage of the 2013 budget and subsequent assent by Mr. President did the Budget Office issue such a directive.”
Ojiah outlined what he called the “true situation” to be that: “following the passage of the 2013 Budget, a series of consultations were held between the National Assembly (NASS) and the Executive, during which observations were made on aspects of the passed bill that required adjustment, including personnel cost, overhead votes and critical capital projects. It was agreed that an amendment should be sent to NASS for consideration after assent by Mr. President.”
He added that “the Budget Office subsequently issued a brief Circular Ref No. BD/2000/Exp/S.132/T/16, dated 6th March 2013, to guide MDAs on steps to observe in proposing any amendment to their budgets, along with a template. They were to focus on the personnel cost, overhead and critical capital projects.”
The office emphasised “there was nothing in the circular remotely suggesting that the 2013 Appropriation Act should not be implemented, as alleged. That was never the subject of the circular.”
Ojiah noted that “far from being disrespectful to the Appropriation Act, the Guideline took pains to stress the need for MDAs, in preparing their amendment proposal, to respect the Act as passed.”
The House of Representatives had summoned the Director General of the Budget Office, Dr Bright Okogwu, to appear before it for what was termed a breach of the Appropriation Act “capable of destroying the growing rapport and spirit of cooperation between the legislature and the executive.”