CSO Coalition Lauds Civil Service Reforms

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The Coalition of Civil Society Forum (CCSF), has described the attack on the reform in the civil service by some Nigerians as malicious and not conformable to accountability in the nation’s bureaucracy.

The forum yesterday in Abuja distanced itself from any condemnation of the reform, which it said has saved Nigeria huge resources and promoted accountability in the process.

The Convener of the CCSF, which is made up of 10 civil society groups, Mr. Adeniran Taiwo, said the introduction of the Integrated Personal Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS), has exposed ghost workers in the system and saved the nation billions of resources that would be deployed to other areas of need for national benefit against individual self-serving interests that undermined public development.

He said that all Nigerians of goodwill and aspiration for national development should support the initiative and rally round the system and its implementers to succeed and boost the service.

His words: “We decided to intervene by holding this press conference in support of ongoing reforms in the Nigeria Civil Service (NCS) initiated by the administration of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari.

“It is on record that the Federal Civil Service under the current leadership has witnessed many remarkable achievements. Most prominent among these is the great work being done to transform the service from a paper-based system of administration to one that is driven by technology.

“We also acknowledge the work done by the administration on the upward review of Duty Tour Allowances, which is benefiting all civil servants and by extension their families and Nigerians.

“This is in addition to the implementation of insurance cover for public servants through the Federal Government Group Life Assurance scheme for the years 2021-2022 and also the introduction of Performance Management System in the civil service.

“The administration has also taken bold steps in ensuring that it is not business as usual for ghost workers because a lot of work has been done to sanitise the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System known as I.P.P.I.S, and to flush them out of the system because of their activities which have eaten deep into the national treasury.”