The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Mr. Boss Mustapha, on Tuesday, said Public Service remains the engine room of good governance.
According to him, the public service is also a veritable tool through which government’s policies and programmes are implemented.
“It is in the light of this that Mr. President mandated the reform of the Public Service for more effective and efficient service delivery,” he said.
Mustapha, made these assertions while inaugurating an Inter-Ministerial Task Team (IMTT) on the Review of the National Strategy on Public Service Reforms (NSPSR).
He commended the BPSR for a job well done over the years on previous editions of the Strategy.
The strategic objectives of the NSPSR, among other things, is to make a tangible improvement in services delivered to citizens and other stakeholders, through a focus on quality, timeliness, equity and client orientation.
It is expected to create a governance and institutional environment that enables good governance by strengthening public administration, promoting accountability and transparency, and tackling corruption at all levels across government.
It is again aimed at improving planning, budgeting, monitoring, management and accounting systems so that resources are more sharply focused on priorities, accountability is clear, spending is transparent and public expenditure is more efficiently and prudently controlled.
Equally, it is designed to help develop sustained economic growth, the generation of employment opportunities and to promote social and human development which will enhance the quality of life for all citizens, among others.
Members of IMTT, are expected to interface with selected sectoral agencies for detailed review of the strategy document;
organize stakeholders’ consultative meeting and technical sessions with development partners, NGO’s, media, private sector and civil society organization; and produce a revised and updated SPR for the consideration of the Steering Committee on Reforms (SCR) within 8 weeks to the Bureau, among other terms of reference.
In a related development, Mr. Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi, Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR, said the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) was designed to increase the overall financing of the health sector and to help improve access to primary health care services for all Nigerians, especially the poor, the weak and vulnerable.
He stated this at the inauguration ceremony of the ‘Joint Working Committee (JWC) on the BHCPF Stakeholders’ Retreat’, in Abuja.
He disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to ensuring quality basic health care service is delivered to the majority of Nigerians, particularly, people living in the rural areas and the vulnerable population such as women, children under five years of age and the elderly.
“…in line with its reform mandate, BPSR, with the support of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), undertook analysis of the current situation of the Fund in order to uncover the underlying issues and seek a way forward for faster implementation.
“The analysis identified, as the major cause of the issues, a lack of synergy and agreement amongst stakeholders on how to resolve issues and move the implementation forward for the sake of the citizens,” Arabi said.