Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, has urged the Cabinet Affairs Office (CAO) in the Office of the SGF to facilitate policy coordination among the tiers of government.
NAN reports that Mustapha made the call on Thursday in Abuja at the maiden meeting of Permanent Secretaries and Heads of CAOs at federal and state levels.
He said that the call was to ensure that the executive councils, both at state and federal levels, were provided with the most effective and efficient policy options to move Nigeria forward.
According to him, for the federal and state government to turn things around, the CAOs must support the government’s core business of formulating, implementing, tracking and accounting for policies and programme.
He harped on the urgent need to repositioning the CAOs as the policy development and management centres of government at all levels.
“Let me reiterate that policy making and management are the most sensitive and critical function of government at all levels.
“This requires core competences and capability from CAOs, saddled with the responsibilities of managing policy making and tracking process.
“Empirical evidence suggests that the development of any country largely depends on the policy options the government chooses and implements.
“Sound policy options bring about good public policies and effective service delivery where there is the political will to follow through to implementation,” he said.
The SGF said that the theme of the meeting, “Repositioning the Cabinet Affairs Offices for Effective Service Delivery” was apt and timely.
He said it was also consistent with the global approach to ensuring effective coordination of policies, programme and projects at the national and sub-national levels.
