BPSR Boss Advocates e-governance for Public Service
Just like other governments across the globe have initiated a number of policy frameworks to reform the Public Service by recognizing the structures, systems and processes that will enhance the delivery of services to their citizens, Nigeria is not an exception, says Dr. Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi.
Dr. Arabi, the Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), spoke at the July edition of BPSR’s lunch-time reform seminar on “Nigeria’s E-Government Master-Plan: Challenges, Opportunities and Protocols in the Federal Public Service.”
The seminar was held, yesterday, at the Auditorium of the Federal Ministry of Finance, in Abuja.
The BPSR helmsman, stated that in the face of increased pace of change, it has becomes more obvious that the traditional government structures and systems are no longer suitable to meet the demands of growing citizen desires and challenges of complex global economies.
“Thus, the desire to reposition the Public Service for effective and efficient service delivery has been the preoccupation of many countries in both developed and developing nations,” he added.
The BPSR Director General, explained that ICT has become one of the major driving force to improve Public Service efficiency and effectiveness. “ICT constitutes a major element through which governments govern, manage their resources, offer services, and account for their performance,” he said.
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He added that transforming the work culture and the mechanism of Federal Public Service from conventional to modern is one of the fundamental objectives of the implementation of e-government.
His words: “To ensure that computer density improve and ICT penetrate across the Public Service to enhance service delivery, the National Strategy for Public Service Reforms (NSPSR) supported the effective implementation of the Strategic Plan of the OHCSF which identified some key ICT-based projects like, the digitalization and automation of the National Records Centre, Karu.
“Overall success achieved under Pillar 3 of NSPSR on Public Financial Management like IPPIS, GIFMIS, TSA, and BVN are e-base. Part of activities of Cabinet Secretariat have been computerized. Pocket of successes of digitalization of processes in public service are recorded in the budgeting process, tax administration, issuance of drivers’ license, International Passports, registration of business, and CBT in Jamb, among others.
“As part of e-governance initiatives, BPSR in collaboration with NITDA, Galaxy Backbone and other government agencies developed a scorecard for ranking MDAs websites, which now serves as a peer review mechanism among Ministries and Agencies to boost compliance to standards for government website”.
Dr. Arabi, also stated that the seminar is part of BPSR’s function of disseminating information on all aspects of Public Service Reforms and to also complement OHCSF in enlightening public servants on new innovations, policies and programmes of government.
By PRNigeria
