Kakaaki Interview with Dr. Joe Abah. Director General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR).

The Director General of Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr Joe Abah was a guest on AIT’s morning program Kakaaki.

On the program, he was asked a number of questions, which gave the DG an opportunity to explain the role of the Bureau to Nigerians.

He pointed out that BPSR has been set up to co-ordinate and monitor public service reforms in Nigeria amongst other objectives, and these include the following;

-      Looking out for good practice and ensure public service sector are doing the right things.

-   Challenge the sector to make sure there are delivering service to the public.

-       Co-ordinate the reform efforts of the government to ensure the various sectors are not in conflict with each other.

-       Provide guidance on how to reform government ministries, departments and agencies.

-       BPSR will ensure that   Ministries or Agencies with large budgets are monitored to ensure that the funds are spent for the benefit of Nigerians.

DG- BPSR, Dr Joe Abah

 DG exemplified the importance of communication when he stressed that a lot more emphasis would be placed on communicating the reforms of the bureau aimed at influencing public discourse dominated by politics. He said there are many things that are working in Nigeria and his aim with the bureau is to ensure these reforms are adequately communicated to Nigerians.

He went on to narrate some of the reforms, which have been put in place, but have gone un-noticed by Nigerians.

SOME REFORMATIONS MOST NIGERIANS ARE NOT AWARE OF.

-       Trains are now running for the 1^st time in 30 years.

-       Cargo containers are now been transported b y rail thereby reducing the pressure on roads.

-       Fertilizer accessibility has increased from 11% to94%.

-       Fertilizer fraud, which has been around since the colonial days have virtually disappeared.

-       15 million farmers have been empowered in the last 12 months.

-       4 and half million people were ferried via Inland water ways last year.

-       N120 billion has been saved in the last 6 years with the exposure of 20,000 ghost workers through the IPPS reform programme

 PRIORITIES FOR BPSR.

-       To investigate and find out what are the things stopping delivery of services.

-       To investigate and find out the things stopping ministries, departments and agencies from performing optimally, and to seek remedies.

-       BPSR will take a serious look at some of these constraints (attitude, due process, capacity of civil servants, corruption, late passage of budget, etc) and propose workable solutions to over coming them.

-       Conduct a Perception Survey. Talk to Nigerians across the geo-political zones to determine what they actually feel about the reforms taking place.

-       BPSR will review all reforms that were initiated over the past 5 years in order to access which ones have worked and which haven’t.

The DG ended by revealing the guiding focus of BPSR, which is to monitor, what Nigerians get, want and expect from the government of the day.