The Service Compact with All Nigerians (SERVICOM) programme initiated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 to address poor service delivery in government circles has failed woefully, former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Ama Pepple, said on Monday.
People said this while speaking at the opening session of a two-day National Policy Dialogue on Service Delivery held at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja.
She said SERVICOM has failed to meet the objectives for which it was established by the former president, stressing that despite the current administration’s determination to do things differently, files are still missing and being piled in one office or the other untreated.
She said issues bordering on indiscipline, corruption and inefficiency which SERVICOM seeks to address loom large in all facets of public service.
According to her, despite efforts by the Obasanjo administration to raise the standard of service delivery by the public institutions to the citizenry, the public service continues to get knocks and criticisms for poor service delivery.
She said prompt service deliver is the right of every Nigerian, adding that the only government policy that would have redeemed the damaged reputation of the public service which is SERVICOM, and that “there seems to be no salvation for the service.”
She said: “It is note worthy that any client or customer that enters into a government office or agency expect certain standard of service delivery, it is their right to demand that standard. SERVICOM, therefore, was meant to enhance service delivery, it was intended to deliver prompt, efficient and effective service to the Nigerian people and others who visit government offices and agencies.
“The SERVICOM Charter was distributed to all government offices, SERVICOM desks were set up, officers of grade level 16 reporting directly to the permanent secretaries were in charge of the unit. In the midst of varied and daunting challenges in country and rising expectations from citizenry, the first question we should ask ourselves is this, in spite of all of the above has SERVICOM achieved it’s purpose? Definitely not. The public service continues to get knocks, criticism and to be seen in negative light in its service delivery agenda.
“My conviction is that one government policy that would have redeemed the damage reputation of the public service is SERVICOM. But there seems to be no salvation for the service. Files continues to get missing, sometimes piled in one office or the other untreated, indiscipline, corruption and inefficiency looms large throughout the public service.
“This government places a lot of emphasis on change which the dictionary defines as making the form nature content the future or cause something to be different of what it would have been if it was left alone. And they say change is the only permanent thing in life because everything in life evolves, even a child is born and he changes everyday as he grows older. The public service is therefore expected to be an agent of change and driver of change and to spearhead the slogan ‘Change Begins With Me.”
In his remarks, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir David Lawal, said the objective of the forum is to seek ways to continually enhance citizen-focused service delivery by providing a platform for the exchange of ideas to advance improved service delivery as a direct outcome of the Change Agenda.
He said the forum marks a significant step in the administration’s effort to enhance and sustain the culture of effective service delivery in all Government establishments, to serve the people better.
Also speaking, Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, said the launch of the “Change Begins With Me” campaign and the resuscitation of the quarterly Civil Service Lecture series were significant steps taken by the present administration to demonstrate that it was no longer business as usual in the public service.