The Federal Government through the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation has commenced moves to ensure that official government documents dubbed sensitive are not leaked to the public.
The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, in a memo dated February 19, 2024, and uploaded on the website of the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation “ohcsf.gov.org”, said the leak of such documents had become embarrassing to the government and must therefore stop.
The memo tagged HCSF/3065/VI/189 reads, “It has been observed with dismay, the increase in the cases of leakage of sensitive official documents in ministries, departments and agencies. This is very embarrassing to the government and therefore unacceptable.
“As part of the efforts to curb this undesirable development, all Permanent Secretaries are to fast-track the migration to the digitalised workflow system and ensure effective deployment of the Enterprise
Content Management Solution. This will reduce physical contact with official documents, thereby checking the increasing incidence of leakage and circulation of the same.
“Furthermore, Permanent Secretaries are advised to strongly warn all staff against leaking and circulating official information and documents.
“Any officer caught engaging in such unbecoming act will be severely dealt with in line with the relevant provisions of the Public Service Rules and other extant circulars.”
There has been an increase in the leak of sensitive government documents to the public space in recent times. Recently, a memo from the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, revealed plans to allocate the sum of N500m as allowances to members of the tripartite committee on minimum wage set up by the Federal Government. Also, a memo about a huge amount of money to be allocated as subsidy for the Hajj pilgrimage, which purportedly emanated from the office of the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, was seen in public space.
The two memos had generated outrage with civil society organisations and organised labour demanding probes of such allocations.
