To make workers in the Nigerian public service system perform better in their roles, the Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof Tunji Olaopa, has called for a review of the basis on which civil servants are paid.
Prof Olaopa suggested that to ensure optimal productivity by workers with top-notch skills in the country’s public service, creative innovations to institute a competitive pay policy must be put in place.
The FCSC chairman stated this on Friday during a visit to the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Salaries Incomes & Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, in his (Nta’s) office in Abuja.
He said, “With the performance bond signed by His Excellency, the President with the key players in government, and the ongoing drive to get a new performance management system fully instituted in the federal service, innovative pay solutions like performance-related pay will necessarily challenge our creativity.
“We also will be required to innovate if pay and compensation have to align with the growing changes in the world of work, for example when flexible employment contracts become a veritable solution.
“Some reform ideas like the senior executive service option will come into play in enlisting high-end skills locally and from the Diaspora to increase the IQ of service at the top management levels.”
Olaopa remarked, however, that the real value of wages and salary increases gets eroded almost as they are adjusted, as the “alignment between number and pay has not been sufficiently worked out to compensate for inflation, making it fall below the living wage.”
He advised that with the brain drain phenomenon and migration of talents from the public service, creative frameworks were required to restore the position of the government as the employer of choice.
He lamented that most processes in the federal service were outdated as the administrative system is still largely analogue, relying on paperwork, despite ongoing digitization.
On his part, Nta expressed delight at the efforts of the new leadership of the FCSC under the guidance of Olaopa, explaining that part of his commission’s mandate was to bridge the gap between public and private sector salaries and wages and advocated empowerment through training that would ensure steady income and livelihood for workers.
