The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Danladi Kifasi has underscored the importance of hand over notes in the public service, particularly one that provides key knowledge and information regarding the state of affairs of a ministry and its agencies and parastatals, so that the period of transition can be as short and smooth as possible.
Kifasi said this today while delivering a key note address at the BPSR organized Workshop on Ministerial Handover Briefings for Directors in MDAs
He said that this year’s transition was unique in the sense that since the return to democratic rule in 1999, government was changing from one political party to another and for this reason the incoming government would require relevant information, in order to enable it effectively take over the reins of government as quickly as possible.
According to him, “New Ministers need to have key information that they require about their roles, the ministries that they will superintend, the issues that they need to focus on and the key stakeholders that they would need to engage with. The information that they receive should be complete, particularly with regards to key issues, such as current status of key initiatives in the ministry and the management resources, both human and capital”, he further said.
The Head of Service warned civil servants on the danger of withholding information or failing to provide adequate information, describing it as unprofessional, unethical and unnecessary, adding that information could only be hidden for a while and soon the state of affairs would emerge.
He however advised civil servants to improve their ability to be complete in the way they write, which was why this training workshop was coming at opportune time, and why the body of permanent secretaries also welcomed the initiative for the training.
The Head of service hoped that with this important workshop they can now support the development of Ministerial hand over notes that are consistent in terms of quality, scope and content, while allowing the idiosyncrasies of each Ministry
The Director General of Bureau of Public Service Reforms, BPSR, Dr Joe Abah, while speaking at the workshop noted that preparation of hand over notes often suffered some glaring pitfalls such as lack of coordination between mainline Ministries and agencies, uneven in quality, with some being very good and others being very poor; some hand over notes can range from just 5 pages to more than 500 pages, adding that it was in trying to establish consistency in writing the hand over notes that was the reason behind organizing the workshop.
He commended the DFID Federal Public Administration Reform Programme(FEPAR) for its technical and logistical support towards successful hosting of the workshop.