Authority of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration, FCTA has issued a two-months ultimatum to its Secretariats, Departments and Agencies that are yet to submit their Standard Operating Procedure, SOP to do so or be sanctioned.
The Permanent Secretary FCTA, Mr Adesola Olusade gave the deadline while addressing participants at a one -day validation workshop for the optimisation of SOP manual held in Abuja.
Mr Olusade said any SDAs that didn’t submit its SOP before April, would not access the month’s over-head.
According to him, “April’s over-head will be paid only to SDAs that have submitted their SOP, since the commencement of the exercise in FCTA and the measures the administration have taken so far , it is expected that all Secretariats, Departments and Agencies should key in.
“SOP is very important to us, since we started some experts came in to see that the exercise meet the international best practice, we have to abide by it. This will strengthen FCT Administration’s SDAs and bring about efficient service delivery in all areas”
Olusade also directed the department of Treasury that effective from April, over-head should only be paid to SDAs that have submitted their SOP, and have the proof.
“There must be a form of sanction to encourage submission, the easiest one we could do is to get your SOP ready before any over-head, if the SOP is not there, the over-head can not be released. So, we are insisting that finish your SOP and get your over-head”, he added.
Earlier, the Director FCTA Reform Coordination and Service Improvement, Dr Jumai Ahmadu, said the remaining SDAs would be encouraged to submit their SOP before the deadline.
According to her, “We have been on this matter for almost a year now, and the turn-out is not very encouraging from the SDAs that are yet to submit their SOP. The permanent secretary is clear about it, he has tied it down to the release of over-head.
“As civil servants, we take directive. I believe that the remaining SDAs will submit their SOP before the deadline given by the the permanent secretary”
Mrs Ahmadu explained that the Standard Operating Procedure would help SDAs do well without set backs, if guided by the SOP.
Confidence Okwuchi
