Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Mrs Didi Esther Walson-Jack, has declared that a comprehensive personnel audit is critical to ending decades of reform based on mere assumptions in the federal bureaucracy.
She stated this yesterday in Abuja while inaugurating a three-day retreat for the Personnel Audit and Skills Gap Analysis (PASCA) initiative, a cornerstone of the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan 2021-2025.
Addressing a gathering of steering committee members, implementation teams, and consultants, Walson-Jack framed the exercise as a pivotal national assignment directly tied to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
In her welcome address, the head of Service outlined the transformative potential of the audit, moving beyond simple headcounts to a detailed mapping of the service’s human capital.
“This project will give us what we have long needed: a credible and verifiable personnel database that captures not just numbers but skills, competencies, and workforce distribution across the service,” she said.
While emphasising the shift to evidence-based governance, she added, “Without such data, reforms risk being anchored on assumptions. With it, we can direct capacity building where it is most needed, deploy resources strategically, and plan for the next generation of civil servants.”
Placing a significant responsibility on the lead consultant, Philips Consulting Limited, and the 15 cluster consultants, Walson-Jack charged them with meticulous execution.
“The cluster consultants must be meticulous, ensuring that data collection and fieldwork are executed diligently. The credibility of this exercise, therefore, rests on your professionalism, attention to detail, and fidelity to the agreed methodology,” she stated.
She urged all participants to ensure the retreat produces a unified and workable methodology that is implementable and capable of serving as a reference point for future reforms.
The head of Service also reminded the participants that the ultimate goal of a reformed civil service is to improve governance for all Nigerians.
“A well-structured civil service is not an end in itself but a means of delivering efficient, accountable, and responsive governance to citizens,” she said.
The chairman of Phillips Consulting, Mr. Foluso Phillips, while speaking with journalists after the opening ceremony, detailed the ambitious multi-phase plan.
“The whole exercise we are embarking on is first of all to verify who really is a civil servant. When we’ve done that, we want to identify what are the capabilities, competence, and strengths of each individual.
“Identify the kinds of jobs that we need to fill, and the kind of people we need to fill these jobs, and then begin to deal with the existing gaps,” he said.
Looking beyond the immediate task, Phillips hoped the federal initiative would become a blueprint for the country.
“Not only at the federal level, we are hoping that even at the sub-national level, all the state governments will begin to replicate what is being done at the federal level, to ensure that the people we have in place, working in this country, are fit for purpose,” he said.
