Era of bureaucracy in federal civil service over, says HOS

• Mulls establishment of innovation department
Acting Head of Service (HOS) of the federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, has declared that the era of bureaucracy that has held down performances in the civil service over the years is over. She said civil servants should brace up for new innovations for better service delivery.

“We need to inject fresh ideas on how to do things differently, the civil service will not just be a sinking entity, but will be one that can actually bring a lot of good will, better performance and new innovations to the table,” she said.

She stated this yesterday while declaring open a two-day radical innovation technology training programme anchored by the United States-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for 80 officers in Abuja.

Yemi-Esan said there was an urgent need to embrace new technology innovation in the public sector, which could be appreciated when one remembers the pace with which innovation technologies are being deployed in the private sector and which most organisations have leveraged to enhance their efficiency, transparency, performances and fortunes.

She said it would be unbecoming of the public sector, which is expected to be the driver of socio-economic development to lag behind in this critical area stressing, “hence as policy makers, we must all be future-oriented and adaptive to operational change so as to create value in service delivery to Nigerians.

“It is in view of these realities that this training is being organised to equip participants with requisite skills and knowledge to drive innovation in the public sector.

“It is also expected to expose the 80 officers drawn from various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to some of the salient features of contemporary innovation and lay out the philosophy, tools, procedures and incentives that organisations, especially those in the public sector can adopt to drive innovations.”

She explained that to successfully build a robust foundation for innovation in the public service, the HOS project management team on innovation would embark on the establishment of a service innovation department in the HOS Office to raise awareness on innovation.

The unit, she explained would create an online innovation network to showcase existing innovation in the service to foster knowledge sharing among others.

Speaking, Executive Director of MIT, Dr. Bhaskar Pant, said having been invited to train Nigerian civil servants, there was no doubt that the knowledge they would acquire would help them to strengthen their operations in the country.“We are aware that this training is key for government officers so that they can deliver satisfactory services to the public they serve in much more different ways than they used to do.”