The Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) has commended the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on its implementation of a seamless performance management system (PMS) in achieving its corporate objectives and, consequently, gearing the nation’s digital economy towards an enviable global standard.
The commendation was given when the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, represented by the permanent secretary, career management office, OHCSF, Dr. Marcus Olaniyi and the permanent secretary, service policy and strategy office, OHCSF, Dr. Emmanuel Meribole, along with other delegates visited the corporate headquarters of the agency as part of its supervisory role in ensuring a service-wide implementation of the PMS in all government institutions.
This commendation came barely a week after NITDA was awarded the prestigious Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) award organisational category by President Muhammadu Buhari as a clear indication that the agency is aligning its efforts and commitment with the agenda of the present administration.
Esan stated that part of the strategic plan of the OHCSF is to institutionalise the PMS within the entire service and necessitate study visits to agencies of government to evaluate their frameworks and proffer solutions to possible challenges. “We are here to examine the framework you have put in place, share your experiences, challenges and lessons learnt with a view to implementing an effective PMS service-wide.”
While expressing her satisfaction at the framework presented by the agency, Esan noted that the features and elements of the agency’s PMS were highly impressive and would effectively track the performance of employees consistently and measurably.
She particularly lauded the agency on its year-round implementation of the PMS, a strategy she claimed will help them identify gaps early enough to proffer solutions and also urged them to intensify their advisory role as stipulated by their mandate. “I am really delighted and impressed by your PMS framework and I want you to know that we will need your cooperation and leverage on your experience.”
Earlier in his presentation, the director-general of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, appreciated the HOCSF for sending representatives to NITDA and described it as a privilege to host the delegation
He disclosed that the agency commenced its PMS implementation in 2016 under the stewardship of Prof. Isa Pantami the then director general and current Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
Emphasising on the value the initiative has added to the agency’s work processes, the NITDA boss stated that the implementation of the PMS has gained top priority in his administration’s restructuring process and capacities of staff has been built to exploit its optimisation.
“At first, we could not align it with our Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP) document, so we decided to send some of our staff to get more training on how effectively we can implement this particular activity,” he noted.
Represented by the agency’s director, information technology infrastructure solutions (ITIS), Dr. Gambo Abdullahi, the NITDA boss averred that an effective performance framework is dependent on a clear vision, robust strategy, good structure and most importantly, excellent culture.
“We are trying to see how we can reconnect the people’s practices with the vision of the agency and assess them appropriately and objectively while ensuring that people who didn’t perform well will understand and agree that they didn’t do well enough,” he stated.
Pointing out how the PMS is being used as a motivational tool for staff, Abdullahi posited that responsibilities have been personalised and objectives cascaded down to various individuals that are responsible to deliver the set objectives with rewards and penalties attached for those who perform well and those who may not.
He emphatically stated that the transparent system will showcase unbiased evaluation for all staff performance and ensure that objectivity takes precedence over subjectivity.
