The Head of Civil Service of Nigeria, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan has implored Ministries, extra- Ministerial Departments and Agencies, (MDAs), to imbibe the culture of fairness and transparency in the selection of monthly and annual Awardees for the Rewards and Recognition Scheme, R&RS, in the Federal Civil Service.
The call was made at the Opening Session of a Workshop organised by the Office on the Implementation of R&RS for Directors of Human Resources and Deputy Directors in charge of Staff Welfare of MDAs, in Abuja.
The Head of Service was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary, Staff Welfare Office, Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mahmud Adam Kambari.
Mr Kambari stated that the justification of every nomination for award and fairness to all in the process of selection, as well as standardization of all the procedures, are very crucial, as these are secrets to seamless, successful and sustainable implementation of the recently introduced R&RS in the Federal Civil Service.
According to the Permanent Secretary, R&RS was introduced in May 2019 by the OHCSF to serve as a motivational tool to encourage excellence and human capital development for career progression.
The system is performance-driven, which serves as an enabler for effective service delivery in all MDAs with the following fundamental objectives; setting a professional framework for institutionalising performance management and service delivery mindset; linking rewards and recognition to measurable performance and serving as a medium for MDAs to make nominations for various Service-wide and National Recognition, Honours, Merits, as well as Productivity awards.
Mr Kambari intimated to the participants the aim of the Workshop, which is to strengthen the implementation of the Scheme in the Federal Civil Service for transparency, merit and uniformity in the selection process.
“The idea behind the Scheme is to provide a comprehensive and robust rewards system that will enhance productivity, as well as attract, nurture, develop and retain the best employees in the Civil Service. It is also pivotal in linking rewards to performance, thus the application of the new Performance Management System (PMS) will be instrumental in its implementation to ensure that Civil Servants are held accountable in the discharge of their duties,” he added.
He highlighted the three categories of Awards;
“Service Wide Awards and Recognition Scheme; MDAs’ Awards and Recognition Scheme and the Departmental Awards and Recognition Scheme. The Departmental Awards is intended to be every month, which commenced in most MDAs with the award of “Best Staff of the Month,” where pictures of winners are pasted at strategic places within the MDA. Some MDAs have also begun the implementation of the Scheme by conferring Awards on deserving Officers, who have distinguished themselves in the course of performing their statutory services at the Ministerial level.
“The Service–wide Awards and Recognition Ceremony is being organized by the OHCSF, such as the one that took place during the 2022 Civil Service Week celebrations, where forty (40) outstanding Officers, across MDAs, were recognized and rewarded,” he explained.
While urging participants to exhibit due diligence in the selection process, he encouraged them to use the five Core Values of Service, Accountability, Meritocracy, Professionalism, Loyalty, and Efficiency as criteria for specific awards.
He introduced the composition of the Ministerial Award Selection Committee meant to establish a seamless selection and screening process for the nomination of awardees.
The Permanent Secretary encouraged participants to come up with robust and fruitful decisions that will elicit positive outcomes while recognising the unflinching support and partnership of some Private Sector Organisations such as the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation that instituted an endowment fund of five hundred thousand naira (N500, 000.00) each for the awardees, annually, and the Consortium of Insurance Companies that donated a brand new GAC SUV as the Star Prize for the 2022 Civil Service Week Awards.
