The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Dr. Babayo Ardo has stated that the inauguration and launching of Ministerial SERVICOM Unit would facilitate the pace of service delivery of the Ministry to the public.
He stated this on the official inauguration of the Ministerial SERVICOM Unit (MSU) of the Ministry held on Monday 29th November, 2021 in Abuja.
According to him, the unit would be involved in the day-to-day supervision of service delivery in the Ministry as well as receiving and resolving complaints from visitors and staff.
He said, “I hope our MSU will rise up to the challenge in ensuring that members of staff of the Ministry render prompt and quality service required from them through their constant and effective monitoring of activities in the Ministry”.
The Permanent Secretary recalled that SERVICOM, a service compact with all Nigerians is a contract signed by the Federal Government in March 2004, which expressly stated that all Nigerian have rights and entitlements to good service delivery.
He added, “the compact came about because empirical studies commissioned by the Federal Government then revealed that Nigerians for a long time had been short-charged in the area of prompt and qualitative service delivery. Helpless and hapless Nigerians had to put up with the antics of public servants such as in demanding for bribe and gratification from public and fellow officers in order to access services and get their files moved from one table to another”.
He further stated that the guiding principles that established SERVICOM include and not limited to: Dedication to deliver services to which citizens are entitled, timely, fairly, honestly, effectively and transparently; Consideration for the needs and rights of all Nigerians to enjoy social and economic advancement; Affirmation of commitment to the service of the Nigerian Nation.
Babayo informed that the Ministry through the Reform Coordination and Service Improvement Department had already put in place special programmes such as: The Reform Initiatives Monthly Lecture series and the Reform Co-ordination and Service Delivery Workshop series to enlighten staff more on all issues pertaining to the Reform Agenda of the Federal Government, noting that the objective of the programme is to reposition the Ministry’s staff for better service delivery.
“I have also approved the establishment of Reform champions as a mechanism to ensure that reform initiatives are popularly embraced by the entire staff of the Ministry. Under this arrangement, each department has a Reform Champion, whose duty is to function as a Focal person in propagating the Reform Agenda in his/her department”, The Permanent Secretary posited.
Earlier in his speech, the Director Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, Mr. Gbade Ale stated that Servicom designed a manual known as Servicom Index for assessment of services carried out by MDAs. It is a yardstick for measuring the quality of service as delivered by Government through its various Ministries, Departments, Parastatals and Agencies.
He emphasized that the operation of MSU will benefit not only visitors but all staff of the Ministry who are equally clients and customers requiring services at one time or other.