The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Wednesday, presented Samsung Galaxy Tabs to 17 winners of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025 (FCSSIP25) open competition in different departments of the ministry.
The Ministry also decorated Leadership Enhancement and Development programme (LEAD-P) officers in the ministry, apart from presenting medals to successful athletes and unveiling of the Ministry’s Sport’s club kits
Speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, said the ministry wants to take the lead in the digitisation of the civil service, saying staff of the ministry will be motivated for optimal performance.
He said: “I wish we had this event last month when the minister was here and when some of our staff were promoted. However, we will still celebrate the promoted staff. Any staff working in this ministry will be motivated to perform his best in order to ensure that the civil service becomes reputable and something of envy. What we are doing is to elevate the ICT capacity of our staff.
“Our ministry was the first to host a meeting of directors of Reform last month. We have a competitive spirit. There is a particular ministry we want to learn from so that we can continue improving with regards to the digitization of the civil service. We will continue rewarding outstanding staff of the ministry.”
Also speaking, the Director, Reforms Coordination and Service Improvement, Mr Valentine Ezulu, said that 26 staff of the Ministry participated in the competition from 10 Departments/Units in the Ministry on Friday 16th June, which was supervised by judges from the Office of the Head of the Civil of the Federation.
He said: “You will recall that the Federal Civil Service is currently undergoing several reforms that will make the service more effective. These reforms are aimed at repositioning the Civil Service into one of the best public institutions for better service delivery across all sectors globally.
“It is against this backdrop that the Permanent Secretary in the held with LEAD P Officers posted to the Ministry on Monday 13th March, 2023 directed that there should be an open competition for all staff of the Ministry and its agencies on the memorization of the six (6) pillars of FCSSIP25 and its enablers. He also stated that this competition will begin from the headquarters before it is cascaded to all the agencies under the Ministry.
“Further to this directive, the Department successfully organized the competition on Friday 16th, June 2023 and was supervised by judges from the Office of the Head of the Civil of the Federation and had been marked and successful candidates have been selected.
“Only 26 staff of the Ministry participated in the competition from 10 Departments/Units in the Ministry which includes, Human Resource Management, Reforms Coordination & Service Improvement (RC&SI), Social Development, Finance & Accounts, PRS, Humanitarian Affairs, General Services, Legal Unit, Internal Audit (IA) and Stock Verification Unit (SVU).
“No nomination came from the Honourable Minister’s Office, Permanent Secretary’s Office, Special Needs Department, Finance & Accounts (NSIP), Procurement Department, Internal Audit (NSIP), Press Unit and Federal Audit in spite of three Office Notices that was sent at different intervals to all Departments and Units to send nomination for the competition.”
He added: “In line with one of the core values of the civil service, which is meritocracy, the judges decided that winners should emerge based on it. Hence, the five participants from Humanitarian Affairs Department were successful with two of them scoring 19/20. Also, the two (2) participants from PRS and SVU were successful. Two participants from Social Development passed the cut off. Out of the five participants from RC&SI Department, three were successful with two of them scoring 20/20 being the highest in the competition. HRM had one participant that passed. F&A and IA had one participant each and both passed bringing the total number of winners to seventeen.
“I thank the Permanent Secretary for this gesture and the support he gave the Department to ensure that this competition was carried out just within the space of three months. I therefore urge Departments/Units that had no showing in the competition to understand that reforms in the civil service has come to stay and as such all hands should be deck to ensure that the Ministry is above board among all MDAs. It is also pertinent to note that this competition will be sustained using different approaches, however, subject to availability of funds.”
