The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has reeled off the achievements that constituted the scorecard of his leadership of the agency in the past three years.
Olaopa spoke on Wednesday in Asaba during the 45th National Council and Annual Conference of the Civil Service Commissions of the Federation .
According to Olaopa, his leadership which is also referred to as the 10th Commission is in its third year, and is running out its first tenure.
To Olaopa, the achievements of the 10th commission are mainly in two categories. . He said that for the first time since the existence of the FCSC, his leadership introduced a new online mode of recruitment.
“This facilitates a more convenient, cost-effective, friendly and safer recruitment exercise that deploys the computer-based testing as a procedure for achieving merit-based selection of civil servants.
On the other hand, there has also been established a strictly controlled and transparent service-wide and directorate-level promotion system that again utilizes online accreditation and the CBT to facilitate the promotion of civil service officers. This goes a long way in undermining undue influence and racketeering”, he said.
He said that in the life of the FCSC spanning decades, his leadership for the first time also introduced a strategic plan that secured the buy-in of a large pool of stakeholders. He said that the strategic plan would run for five years.
Listing further achievements, Olaopa said that the Commission had opened up its visibility in terms of more strategic communication of its policies and activities. Through such strategic communication, according to him, the image of the FCSC is now changing from that of a cesspool of corruption to that of a haven of transparency, fairness and credibility.
He said that the Commission had also commenced and strengthened a robust relationship with stakeholders from the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, the National Salaries, Wages and Incomes Commission, among others, to secure critical support for its mandates.
“All these have steadily reversed the Commission’s image away from being the hub of administrative corruption to that of an agency with a principled status in terms of its stance on human resource management processes concerning staff appointment, promotion, discipline and appeals. This has led to the strengthening of the Commission’s capacity to resuscitate its critical presence in inter-institutional bodies. This in other words informs the revival of the National Council of Civil Service Commission as well as the FCSC’s membership of the Association of African Public Service Commissions”, he said.
According to him, the
campaign against corruption in the Commission has largely been pursued through the strengthening of internal controls and processes that people exploit to create internal market where appointments, promotions and career decisions are compromised.
He noted that the FCSC was adjusting internal capabilities, processes and systems to achieve a minimum tolerable threshold. He said that the Commission was dealing with a reputation-reality asymmetry. Thus, to him, there is the need to implement much more extensive changes to close the gap between the desired reputation that for the Commission and its current operational reality.
” Indeed, when you think you are changing but your clients and stakeholders still experience the old, broken reality, then there is what, in the language of change management, is called ‘authenticity gap’ to deal with. We must face the fact that is shaping the reality that we are contending with. We expect so much from a workforce that is demotivated and trapped in the existential challenge of living day to day living. Yet we expect them to deliver value that is bigger than themselves. Which raises the question regarding what we reward and the extent to which the workforce feel that the organization value them as well as the contributions they are making. This ultimately should count in the way we manage our expectations and the experience that we want the workforce to deliver in the light of the value this will create for the segment of the public that we serve”, he said.
He added that “With the benefit of leadership by example, commitment to integrity as inviolable, and adjustment to internal capabilities, processes and systems, we are implementing a culture change that will ensure that any future branding and reputation we project is anchored on what is real and achievable.”