4th April, 2017
The Lagos State Government has charged civil servants in the state to be accountable and transparent in the discharge of their duties to the public.
Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke said this on Tuesday, at a two-day workshop tagged: ‘Engaging Global Best Practice to Deliver Value Per Excellence in Lagos State.”
According to him, the delivery of value to citizens was the fundamental objective of any democratically-elected government, saying that in today’s world, however, the delivered value must be delivered per excellence.
“This is chiefly because citizens have become sophisticated and exposed to the standards of governance in other climes such that their expectations have been conditioned to demand and insist on compliance with global best practices at all levels of governance,” he said.
Oke said Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had made it clear that through the various training and retraining, his administration sets out to achieve in the civil service, improved government proficiency, increased citizen satisfaction and public rendering of accounts.
He added that with these in place, opportunities would be created to inform and discuss public finances where the citizens and the government could foster an informed and involved citizenry.
Oke said another best practice which the State strove to achieve was participatory budgeting, which he said led to increased government transparency, accountability, accessibility and responsiveness.
He also warned government officials to be wary of the fact that government performance was not only measured by the quality and quantity of implemented projects but also and more importantly by the impression created by workforce when dealing with the public.
Oke said that whenever the citizens felt disconnected with government’s policies, hold a perception about service delivery or felt as though government officials abused their powers or act in the interest of the common good, the workforce was usually responsible and should be held accountable for the overall impression about government by the populace.
The commissioner maintained that the delivery of excellent services to citizens should be seen as the fundamental objective of any democratically-elected government, adding that Lagos residents had become sophisticated and exposed to the standards of governance in other climes to the extent that their expectations had been conditioned to demand and insist on compliance with global best practices at all levels of governance.
“The overriding observation today is that citizens expect the government to comply with global best practices in democratic governance. As we all know, meeting these expectations is the central challenge for governments in the developing world. Lagos State will henceforth therefore be benchmarked with developed cities in the world and not with any State in the country” the commissioner added.
He also identified transparency in governance as a very important feature of government, adding that providing citizens with information regarding government budgets can also make members of the public feel the inclusiveness of government and as such cultivate citizens buy-in.
Oke charged the workers to improve government efficiency by reducing the rate at which service seekers throng in and out government offices through the deployment of necessary mechanisms and applications such that citizens satisfaction would be greatly improved upon.
Earlier, the Director of Training in the Ministry, Mr. Ayodeji Aruna said that the essence of the training was to change the orientation of the entire workforce from the past mode of operation of informing members of the public to collaborating with the citizenry.