By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Permanent Secretary, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Olusola Idowu, has expressed the ministry’s commitment to the Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, at all levels of management in through diligent replication, effective and efficient implementation.
Idowu said this in Abuja, during the opening ceremony of the 10-day REPLICATION WORKSHOP ON STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (SOP) organized by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMBNP) in collaboration with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, OHCSF, for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, across in country.
The Perm. Secretary said that the 2016 strategic Federal Civil Service and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2017-2020) with eight priority areas was flawed by challenges which include lack of performance measures, low adoption rate of digitization due to poor infrastructure and widespread use of manual methods, and limited data-driven decision making, among others.
Idowu disclosed that the OHCSF has successfully prepared a current version of the (FCSSIP 2021 – 2025) plan, which was ready for publication.
According to her, the current plan had six priority areas, which were: Digitization, Capacity Building and Talent Management, Performance Management, Innovations, Culture, Data and Analysis.
She hinted 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 work flow in MDAs thus necessitated the development of implementable Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in all MDAs. OHCSF has successfully developed its own SOP and its replicating same across MDAs.”
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary stated that some of the targets of the current plan include 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.
She explained that these 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.”
Director, Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, Mrs Adesola Oluyide, said that SOP was one of the tools for successful implementation of FCSSIP (2021 – 2025) aimed at ensuring effective and efficient re-engineering of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning.
She implored 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.
