Edet Ikotidem
One of the things Obong Akan Udofia has promised the people of Akwa Ibom is better civil service– the permanent professional branches of a state’s administration.
It means, if this sector fails in carrying out its responsibility, the whole system of government will collapse.
There can be no doubt that public sector reform has been a tough challenge for the last few years. Modern civil service reform is typically driven by an increasing demand for greater public accountability, efficient public administration, and economic efficiency.
However, these three goals do not always go hand in hand. Existing incentives may lead civil servants to pursue short-term objectives rather than those that are sustainable in the long term.
This may be especially true if the work of government agencies is somewhat overburdened while other sectors appear to be booming.
Akan Udofia understands what it takes to have a viable civil following and the growing global demand for civil servants who can work within teams and have the ability to make decisions that are aligned with their government’s strategic direction.
Civil service reform is something that has been talked about for a long time in the state, but never really put into place. And in many ways, the needs continue to grow and grow.
The civil service Akan Udofia intends to create after his swearing as the governor of Akwa Ibom State will be better and will create the interests of the public first
The delay in the reforms of this has been taking a great toll on taxpayers. The civil service has been under attack from all sides. Its poor performance can see this in dealing with some of the most critical affairs of today, including unemployment, security, and infrastructure development, to name but a few.
The actions that will be put in place by the incoming government of Akan Udofia will include data gathering and analysis, organizational restructuring, improving human resource management and training, enhancing pay and benefits while assuring sustainability under overall fiscal constraints, and strengthening measures for performance management, public participation, and transparency.
Quest for Better Civil Service
To these, Obong Akan Udofia had said he would pay a 13th-month salary to civil servants as a boost to encourage them to work better. He equally said that vehicles will be procured to enable quick service delivery as well as the release of funds to impress
The civil service is often held up as an example of how things should be done. It’s seen as the epitome of professionalism and efficiency, but its reputation is not always deserved. Akan udofia intends to make the civil service better and has a clearer sense of mission and purpose.
The civil service is often a byword for bureaucracy. In fact, in many cases, it’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions government: red tape, inefficiency, and a lack of accountability–all hallmarks of an inefficient or corrupt system that will be a thing of the past when Akan Udofis assumes office as the governor of the state.
But while the public perception may be that the civil service is synonymous with this kind of negative connotation (and to some extent they are), there’s no doubt that without it we would face many problems without being able to function properly as a state or country.
Also read: Akanimo Udofia and His Leadership Experience with Words
We are all aware that our civil service lacks vision, leadership, and accountability.
It will be the place of Akan Udofia, a man who has succeeded in business and has a clear vision to replicate the same in the state’s civil service
Improving the civil service is to have a clear vision of where it wants to go, it means having a well-defined objective, with measurable outcomes in mind which Akan Udofia has.
He will put leaders who are willing to drive that agenda forward by setting targets and holding people accountable for delivering on those targets while also ensuring they meet their own expectations around performance management processes.
Civil servants are underpaid and overworked and are not given the tools to do their job properly, and they’re not given the training they need.
The civil service could be better if it had a clearer sense of mission and purpose.
There are a number of ways that the civil service could be better:
- The civil service is underfunded, and it’s not valued enough. Because of this, it doesn’t have the resources needed to fulfill its mission and purpose.
- The civil service needs flexibility in order to respond quickly when there are changes in policy or circumstance–and yet this isn’t always available because of existing rules and regulations around how one works within their department (or agency).
- The next step on this list is accountability: being responsible for everything you do as an employee should make you accountable for what happens around you too! If someone asks questions about why something happened, they deserve answers
Akan udofia is the answer to turn things around in our civil service
