Jonathan urges punishment for erring public officers
President Goodluck Jonathan has called for punishment for erring public officers in the country. Jonathan made the call at the Presidential Villa in Abuja today while swearing in three permanent secretaries and a member of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC). The permanent secretaries are Binta Adamu Bello, Tope Ajakaye and Nanpong Danjuma as well […]
President Goodluck Jonathan has called for punishment for erring public officers in the country. Jonathan made the call at the Presidential Villa in Abuja today while swearing in three permanent secretaries and a member of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC).
The permanent secretaries are Binta Adamu Bello, Tope Ajakaye and Nanpong Danjuma as well as
Simon Etim, FCSC commissioner.
The president frowned on lowering of academic standards which, he said, was lowering the quality of services rendered in public service.
According to him, unlike in the past when public servants were given queries for misconduct, the impunity is so high these days that nobody is queried.
He said there would be an effective service delivery if the permanent secretaries could muster the courage to discipline their subordinates whose conduct does not reflect what is expected of a good public officer.
“You’ve been directors before; which made you acting permanent secretaries. Having served as directors for a long time, there is nothing so new. I believe you’ll do very well. Even though I’ve not worked with any of you directly, through your citation, I’ve the confidence that you’re joining the civil service to improve the quality of the service. What people complain about these days is the lowering of academic standards that lowers the quality of service. If you’ve the courage to discipline people under you whose conduct does not reflect what is expected of a good public officer, it’d be better.
“One of the key problems we’ve in the service is that unlike in those days when people were given queries, these days, the impunity is so high that nobody queries anybody. In a system you don’t have queries, it means that there is no quality control. In any factory producing any goods, if there’s no quality control, definitely, the product will lack the desired quality. So, as permanent secretaries, you must have the courage to query your directors, deputy and assistant directors if you think they’ve done things that deserve to be queried. If you need to refer to the Federal Civil Service Commission guidelines, you should do so because without discipline, as a nation, we cannot go anywhere”, he said.
Speaking to the new federal civil service commissioner, the president regretted that the FCSC used to recruit arbitrarily.
He said: “Before now, the commission recruited almost everybody, but now, because of the various laws, some departments and agencies of government recruit directly. The commission is key and we want to change the mentality in this country that a young Nigerian must know somebody before he gets a job.
“The commission is now doing very well, and I believe you’re joining it to also imbibe the culture that people qualified for employment should get it irrespective of whom they know. No matter how highly placed you are as president, vice president, members of the National Assembly, we were voted by all Nigerians. So, we all owe all Nigerians our service and of course, we must ensure that whatever is available in this country goes to everybody irrespective of whom he knows. That is the message and the key component of our transformation agenda”.