Federal Govt Urges NIPSS To Reconsider More Entry Positions For Civil Servants

The federal government through the head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has called on the Management of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) to reconsider more entry positions, as well as allocated slots for federal civil servants into the Senior Executive Course (SEC).

Yemi-Esan lamented that only substantive directors are considered eligible for admission, while the bar is being lowered for public servants, especially the Military and Paramilitary.

The head of the civil service, who made the call when the director general of NIPSS, Prof. Ayo Omotayo, and the Institute’s management staff paid her a courtesy visit in Abuja, expressed dissatisfaction at the meager seven slots being offered the service, annually.

She urged the NIPSS management to do a comparative analysis of posts in the federal civil service vis-a-vis those of the public service to correct the anomaly, adding that the data is readily accessible.

Yemi-esan however, commended NIPSS for re-tooling the personnel in government through the conduct of courses for middle and top level Officers with the understanding and application of modern policy formulation and strategic management skills to problem-solving in the pursuit of national developmental goals.

While responding to the concerns and issues raised by the director-general, Yemi-Esan, said that a collaboration between the National Institute and the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) would make for a better understanding of government policies and their effectiveness in moving the country forward.

She acknowledged the quality of work put in by the Institute, buttressing it with the fact that in the last three years, a substantial number of the present crop of Transformative Federal Permanent Secretaries were products of NIPSS.

On the proposed certification of directors undergoing SEC as Policy Analysts, the head of the civil service said that it will be economically unwise to spend funds training officers, who have less than three or four years to exit the service, given that the certificates were for proficiency and not career progression, which negates the primary purpose of value addition.

She further directed the institute to make a presentation to the Salaries, Income and Wages Commission concerning the peasant emolument of its staff as raised by the director general, stressing that the OHCSF only has responsibility for establishment matters.

Earlier, while soliciting for more effective collaboration, the director general of NIPSS, Prof. Omotayo, stated that the OHCSF, being the think-tank of the government, should ensure that policies are well articulated, as well as executed to the latter.

He also guaranteed that NIPSS will continue to develop mechanisms toward ensuring that government policies are properly executed.