Civil Servants Are Engine Of Governance – Akinlade

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Mines and Solid Minerals Development, Dr Oluwatoyin Akinlade, has described civil servants as the engine of government and that as engines are serviced and maintained for optimum performance, civil servants need incentives and conducive working environment to maximize their productivity.

Dr Akinlade made this comment while delivering her address at the event to commemorate the 2022 Africa Public Service Day Celebration held on June 27, 2022 in the ministry’s premises.

She said such a day presented the working ‘family’ in the ministry with an opportunity to celebrate themselves and to accord recognition to outstanding workers in the ministry.

She said, “This occasion also affords the opportunity to specially acknowledge members of staff that have distinguished themselves through outstanding performance. As usual, one person was nominated from each department out of which three were selected and forwarded to OHCSF. I want to therefore congratulate all the recipients of this year’s award and appreciate them for their diligence.”

She congratulated Engr. Umar Adamu Tsoho who was honoured with the “Presidential Public Service Award” by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) for outstanding service.

“He made it to the top ten among the nomination from all the MDAs. We are proud of you and we thank you for bringing honour to this Ministry,” she said.

According the statement she read at the occasion, the permanent secretary said the ministry had made efforts within the limits of available resources to provide facilities that would enhance productivity and welfare of staff.

“To the glory of God, we now have a clinic that can provide basic health services to all staff to ensure that our health is given the priority that it deserves.

“In MMSD, many may be unaware that within these few months of operation of the clinic, health crises have been averted for some staff just through routine check by the medical team in the clinic.

“Also, we can easily see the massive deployment of ICT infrastructures within office complex aimed at achieving the full automation of the work processes in the Ministry. MMSD is among the first set of MDAs to receive these facilities and efforts are on to ensure that we blaze the trail in the service-wide project of work-process automation. We have achieved a major improvement in the ACTU rating from about 26.5% to 74.5% compliance and have also surpassed our revenue projections,” Akinlade said.

She noted that since 1999 when the African Union (AU) set aside 23rd June, as the “Africa Public Service Day (APSD), Nigeria had consistently

commemorated the day annually, adding that the 2022 celebration is particularly remarkable because of its theme: “Performance Management System (PMS): Impact on productivity in the Nigeria Public Sector” which encapsulates the passion of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF) for improved productivity and welfare of civil servants.

“It summarises the vision of the HCSF to make the service a world class system that drives optimum productivity through effective and efficient performance management. She has vigorously and pursued the full implementation of the new performance management system through training of various categories of officers.”

She also appreciated the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamileken Adegbite, for providing effective leadership and direction for the ministry.

On his part, the minister, Arc Adegbite, appreciated the staff of the ministry for their commitment, saying the ministry could not have achieved its targets without their collective contributions.

Highlight of the event was the presentation of award certificates to the best workers from each of the departments in the ministry and the gifts of electronic gadgets to retired and retiring staff of the ministry.