Yemi-Esan Urges NIPSS to Allocate Additional Training Slots to Federal Civil Servants

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HoS), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan has appealed to the management of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) to reconsider the entry position, as well as allocated slots for federal civil servants into the Senior Executive Course (SEC).

She also decried the seven slots being offered the service annually.

The HoS made the appeal when the Director General of NIPSS, Prof. Ayo Omotayo and the institute’s management staff paid her a courtesy visit, in Abuja

She complained that only substantive Directors are considered eligible for admission, while the bar was being lowered for public servants, especially the military and paramilitary.

Yemi-Esan urged the NIPSS to do a comparative analysis of posts in the federal civil service vis-a-vis those of the public service with a view to correcting the anomaly, adding that the data is readily accessible.

She also commended NIPSS for re-tooling the personnel in government through the conduct of courses for middle and top level officers with the understanding and application of modern policy formulation and strategic management skills to problem solving in the pursuit of national developmental goals.

She added that a collaboration between NIPSS and the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation would make for a better understanding of government policies and their effectiveness noting that in the last three years, a substantial number of the present crop of transformative federal permanent secretaries were products of institute.

Responding to Omotayo on the proposed certification of Directors undergoing SEC as policy analysts, the HoS said it would be economically unwise to spend funds training officers, who have less than three or four years to exit the service, given that the certificates were for proficiency and not career progression, which negates the primary purpose of value addition.

Regarding the replacement of staff that had left the service of the Institute, Yemi-Esan asked them to apply for a waiver, since there was an embargo on employment, while highlighting that the process of authorised establishments starts towards the ending of each year.

She further directed the institute to make a presentation to the Salaries, Income and Wages Commission concerning the peasant emolument of its staff as raised by the Director General, stressing that the OHCSF only has responsibility for establishment matters.

Earlier, while soliciting for more effective collaboration, Omotayo, stated that the OHCSF, being the think-tank of the government, should ensure that policies are well articulated, as well as executed to the latter.