The Federal Government has today restated its commitment to renew the nation`s public service through the Performance Management System (PMS) initiative, a new system designed to re-engineer and reinvigorate the service performance.

This was made known by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), by Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, when she declared open, a three-day “Train the Trainers“ Workshop on Job Objectives, organized for officers in the office of the HOCSF explaining that the workshop organized by the office of the HOCSF, in collaboration with Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), was meant to acquaint participants with the essential knowledge and skills in setting job objectives.

The initiative is due to the inherent weakness of the current Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER), use currently to assess the civil servants in the country, she explained thus:

“As you are aware, the PMS is one of the eight priority areas in the Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP 2017 to 2020) which is designed to re-engineer the Federal Public Service for increased productivity and quality service delivery.

“It would be noted that at several fora, we have informed on efforts being made by the office to develop a new Performance Management System due to the inherent weakness of the current Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER).

“It is therefore worth stating that the new PMS is based on the principles of accountability, transparency, equity and ownership.’’

While explaining further, she said that when the new PMS is fully operational, every individual, unit, department, and institution in the public service shall be held accountable on a continuous basis to ensure that national development goals were met. In her words:

“PMS will eventually replace the unverifiable and moribund Annual Performance Evaluation Report APER forms currently used to assess the performance of officers in the Public Service.

The head of Civil Service said the objectives of the PMS was to provide a platform for continuous enhancement of performance with regards to national development programmes; to function as a vehicle for the actualization of national goals adding that said the new PMS had been designed to institutionalize a performance-based culture that enabled recognition and reward of high performance at all levels within the Federal Public Service; and also to ensure effective measurement and outcomes of performance at all levels in Federal Public Service.

Mr. Wale Adediran, President CIPM, who also spoke on the development urged the participants to take the workshop seriously, stressing that the success of the workshop was critical, not only for the office of the HOCSF but to the country.

He also assured that the cultural transformation desired and the dream in the Federal Civil Service of the nation would be achieved in the course of the workshop as he said:

“This is the life skill, it goes beyond our service to the nation, this will transform not only our country but will transform our families, it`s about getting the best productivity out of every situation. “