The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio has charged the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPRS) to do more by embarking on a more comprehensive reforms that promotes the ethics of the Civil Service by inculcating efficiency and effectiveness on the job.
According to a statement by the Director, Press and Public Relations in the ministry, Deworitshe Patricia, the minister said this when the Director General of BPSR, Dr Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi, paid him a courtesy visit in his office recently.
While appreciating the BPSR for embarking on Public Service Reforms, Akpabio noted that the ongoing Forensic Audit being carried out at the NDDC is part of Government reform agenda to reposition the Commission for greater service delivery to the Niger Delta region considering the financial irregularities and duplication of projects that has characterized the Commission over the years.
Speaking further, the Minister explained that no country would develop when it has not been able to tackle the issue of corruption. He therefore charged the Director-General BPSR to ensure that the reforms carried out in the Financial and Procurement Sector should be replicated at the State level to block all financial leakages.
“Your reforms must also touch the Educational sector considering the importance of this sector to National development. The BPSR has to do more in bringing the civil service to perfection by protecting the leakages of Government classified documents and also in the area of training and retraining of staff in the Public Service to promote efficiency and effectiveness on the job”, he said.
The Minister of State, MNDA, Sen. Tayo Alasoadura assured the Director-General that the Ministry would do all within its purview to support the ongoing reforms in the Public Service aimed at a better and improved performance.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, (MNDA), Dr. Babayo Ardo, commended the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, (BPSR), Dr. Dasuki Arabi for his astuteness and doggedness in driving the reform agenda of the Federal Government.
He noted that the multiple activities of the Bureau of which the ‘Monthly Lunch Hour Time Reform Seminars and Retreats’ are not the least rather it has greatly helped to constantly put Reform issues on the front burner of Public discourse.
The Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs website was ranked 37th out of 170 MDAs that participated in the latest exercise of 2019/2020 while that of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), a parastatal under the Ministry’s supervision occupied the 75th position. The report has been forwarded to the Minister, who directed that efforts be made to improve the Ministry’s websites. The preliminary works such as peer review of MDAs websites have already started.
The DG of BPSR, Dr Arabi explained that the Bureau was created in 2004 to serve as the engine room and coordinating agency for reforms at the Federal level. He added that the Bureau is mandated to look at ways to encourage Public Servants to improve on the quality of service received by Nigerians and the success recorded by the Institution has enabled some of the Agencies to be rated among the best in the world.
