The Federal Government on Tuesday in Abuja formally launched the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), for the civil service.
The Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, said that this is part of the government’s commitment to enhance professionalism and quicken service delivery process in the conduct of government businesses.
The SOPs is an initiative of the Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG), in collaboration with the OHCSF and is aimed at assisting officers to understand and document records digitally among other procedures.
Dr. Yemi-Esan said that with the SOPs now in place, the service will come up with an effective system that complies with industry-specific regulations and standards to significantly reduce or avoid operational errors as well as unwanted work variations.
“SOPs also ensure the repeatability and consistency of the performance of any type of process. It helps employees to perform complicated tasks, one in which remembering every detail of a procedure can be difficult or in which a precise sequence of steps is essential.
“It is instructive to note that in view of the importance of the SOP manuals to the seamless implementation of the Enterprise Content Management Solution, ECMS, and in line with international best practices.
“The office decided to take the lead and has gone further to approve the immediate service-wide development of SOPs starting with four selected Ministries Departments and Agencies made up of the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC), Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning; State House and the Federal Ministry of Transportation,” she said.
She said that her office has in partnership with AIG, initiated plans to obtain relevant International Organization for Standardization.
ISO is an independent, non- governmental, international organization “that develops standards to ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems.
She added that the SERVIOCM will work closely with her office to ensure compliance and effective implementation across the MDAs.
Speasking earlier, the Chairman of the Africa Initiative for Governance, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, decried the old system of documentation and conducting government businesses.
He said, “We are coming from a situation where there was no formal documentation of processes. That is all fair and good when you are operating in the third world but if you when want to take yourself to the first world, you’ve got to standardize your processes, document them and prepare them for the digitalization that is overcoming everything before our eyes today.”
