The commitment of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration to the implementation of the Making Edo Great Again (MEGA) Agenda has brought about a series of notable reforms in the State Civil and Public service.
Specifically, the State has adopted top-to-bottom, bottom-down and unilateral approaches to reinvigorate the Service by building and developing human capacity, creating a digitally-driven culture of performance management, enshrining a new culture to make workers accountable in the Service to enhance productivity, efficiency and promote better service delivery.
The latest in these efforts is the State government’s collaboration with MacTay Consulting, on an 8-day Performance Management System (PMS) training exercise that was designed to equip Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with the requisite knowledge and skills to fully adopt the new PMS which makes use of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) introduced into the State Civil/Public in the Second Quarter performance review of 2021.
PMS is a new evaluation system introduced by the Federal Government of Nigeria in November 2020 in place of the Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) to assess Civil/Public servants’ performances and ultimately transform the State’s workforce into a competent, efficient and competitive one.
Edo State, which has been rated as a leading State in institutional reforms and accountability to citizens, is in a hurry to rid its institutions of dysfunctional processes and systems, and is one of the few States that have adopted this system.
In her opening address, the Managing Director of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun Public Service Academy, Mrs. Precious Imuwahen Ajoonu, welcomed participants on behalf of Governor Obaseki and advised participants to take the training seriously as the State expects much from them.
She reiterated the State government’s position on value creation and usage and how each person would be held accountable in the new era.
She said: “Governor Obaseki takes this training very seriously, if you can recall, we should have been doing the Quarter 1 performance review by this time, however, we have suspended that until we complete this exercise because we do not want a situation where we carry out reviews and we get the kind of feedback we used to get in the past. We want leaders in the Edo State Government to take ownership of their scorecards.”
She added: “We are going to do the performance review training a bit differently this time around, instead of brining participants per sector, we selected participants to fit into the six (6) thematic pillars of the MEGA Vision and it is our thinking that at the end of this training exercise, MacTay would have taken us through the scorecard to understand it and spend less time during the review.
“The ultimate destination is to be able to move this to the E-GOV platform to make it electronically-driven.”
In attendance were the Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa Esq, Commissioners for Agriculture, Water Resources, Local Government Affairs, Physical, Urban and Regional Planning and Mrs. Elizabeth Rotimi of MacTay Consulting among others.
In the course of the training, participants were advised to take performance review seriously as targets must be met, and taxpayers’ money must be accounted for.
The training which adopted a very practical approach had Public servants trained on how to appropriately fill in the BSC, carry out proper job alignment and placement in their respective MDAs, bring out the best in their subordinates and strategically meet citizens’ expectations which the MEGA Agenda of the State Government is set to deliver.
BSC which is a framework that helps organizations translate strategies into operational objectives that drive both performance and behavioral cultures would ensure Civil/Public servants are accountable for their respective responsibility, as it’s no longer business as usual.
Prior now, the Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER) system used for appraising Public servants was faulted because of its catalogue of drawbacks which include; bias/sentimental appraisal of staff, poor prioritization of tasks/goals, poor role definition, favoritism and subjectivity, no uniform parameters of assessment, unrealistic and unclear tasks/goals, political interference, no strict adherence to who evaluates and most importantly inadequate information training across board by those using it for evaluation.
The inability to properly, fairly and justly explicate and value each employee’s contribution has been one of the greatest challenges emanating from the use of the APER system as what cannot be measured cannot be done.
Most of the civil servants delivering on their responsibilities despite their counterparts’ behaviors towards work assumed that since commitment was not valued appropriately they may as well be reluctant on their jobs concurring with the wrong sayings “If you cannot beat them, you join them.”
The loopholes in the system are currently addressed by the PMS and the role of Public servants as the custodians of Citizens hard earned taxes and not the owners, has been reiterated from all the policies and programs of this present administration thus enshrining accountability and transparency in the system. The administration believes that performance is key if they must deliver on the promises made to Edo people.
The PMS which appraises the State civil/public servants ascertains each employee’s contribution, measures the value each brings to their MDAs, builds performance culture and excellent service, brings about career development in service and ultimately achieves the MEGA Vision.
“The BSC has the ability to change the behavior of employees. The end of performance is a consequence. Positive behavior recognized and valued will get repeated and even replicated, while negative behavior reprimanded would be discouraged. Performance determines rating not looks or familiarity. PMS is a shift in mindset” said Mr. Ajayi Adeyemi, a Consultant and Facilitator from MacTay Consulting.
The Edo State Government has done a lot to change the culture of its workforce and training of these top officials is one of the steps in this direction because culture is the shadow of a leader.
The adoption of a merit-based system of recruitment and appraisal which was clearly seen in the just-concluded recruitment exercise that absorbed over 300 young graduates and the Promotion examination exercise for civil servants on grade levels 8 and 9, are true reflections that the Governor is setting a new pace that we all must follow to achieve our vision 2030.