By Vivian Emoni,
Service Compact with all Nigerians (SERVICOM) was established in March 2004 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, so as to drive its Service Delivery Initiative (SDI).
As part of the initiative, all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) were directed to establish SERVICOM Units.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Each of the SERVICOM Units is headed by a Nodal Officer on Grade Level 16, who is assisted by three officers in charge of the Charter Desk, the Service Improvement Desk and the Customer Relations Complaints Desk.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
The units serve as channels for the entrenchment of SERVICOM principles, which aim at ensuring the delivery of quality services by the MDAs to their customers.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
SERVICOM was designed to monitor the service delivery of the MDAs, in conformity to the citizens’ expectations, and it stands as a facilitator of the social accountability framework of public service delivery in Nigeria.
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As part of its mandate, the SERVICOM Office coordinates the efforts of MDAs to formulate and implement service charters.
The office regularly monitors the progress made by each MDA in performing their specific obligations, which are enunciated in their service charters, while reporting the findings to the President.
SERVICOM also promotes an attitudinal change in the citizens, particularly with regard to their right to demand quality services from the MDAs.
Mr Sylbriks Obriki, the National Coordinator of SERVICOM, said that the Federal Government had directed the creation of the Department of Reforms Coordination and Service Improvement (DRCSI) in all MDAs.
He said that the DRCSI would ensure that the MDAs delivered quality services to citizens, adding that it would also provide a feedback mechanism on the service delivery processes, in line with the public service reforms.
Obriki stressed that the Federal Government established the department because of its determination to ensure the provision of quality services for the citizens.
He urged the citizens to cooperate with the Federal Government in its efforts to ensure quality public service delivery, as part of the strategies to achieve transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“Service delivery issues cannot be treated or handled in isolation from other fundamental factors in other sectors; they are issues that concern the government, the service providers and the service takers.
“I want to encourage the citizens that SERVICOM involves not only the service providers, the citizens, as the service takers, also have a role to play.
“It is a relationship between the government, service providers and citizens; so, we must also relate with government to make sure that the citizens, the service takers, receive all the needed services in hitch-free manner,’’ he said.
However, Dr Tunde Olaokpa, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Technology, said that there were some constraints in MDAs’ service delivery processes, adding, however, that pragmatic efforts were being made to improve the public service delivery.
He said that the Federal Government had moved up on the performance curve by bonding the ministers and the arrangement involved a compact between the president and the ministers.
He added that the ministers, in turn, got their permanent secretaries and their directors to sign up for the service delivery programme.
“We need to look at the constraints of the MDAs. A lot of MDAs are working in the 21st Century, while some are still operating in the 17th Century and service delivery within that frame is likely to be a little poor.
“A lot of ministries don’t even have office for their staff, these are structural constraints that we have to look at; we need to invest more resources in the execution machinery put in place for SERVICOM if we really want an improvement in the service delivery of MDAs.
“It is an evolving system improvement and we are hoping that as we deepen and consolidate the reforms, we will achieve a better quality in our service delivery,’’ he said.
All the same, Mr Ben Arikpo, the National Programme Manager, Federal Public Administration Reform Programme (FEPAR), said that his agency had sustained its technical support to the SERVICOM Office.
He said that the support was aimed at reviewing and updating SERVICOM’s tools, in order to raise service delivery standards and promote accountability in governance.
Arikpo emphasised that service delivery touched the very heart of governance, adding that the active support of the MDAs was required in efforts to achieve SERVICOM’s objectives and improve the quality of public service delivery.
He, nonetheless, underscored the need to reflect on the quality of Nigeria’s public service delivery, 10 years after the establishment of SERVICOM.
He said: “It is time to reflect, look back and ask some questions; questions like what has the team achieved, what significant service delivery improvements have occurred in the public service?’’
Arikpo added that the focus of the retrospection should also be on how SERVICOM tools and mechanisms had been utilised to bring about key reforms and service delivery improvements.
He stressed the need for cooperation, commitment and enthusiasm in efforts to improve the services which the MDAs delivered to various customer groups.
He said that this would impact positively on government processes and add value to the Transformation Agenda of the Jonathan-administration.
Nevertheless, some concerned citizens are worried about the poor service delivery of some MDAs in spite of the SERVICOM initiative.
For instance, Mr Richard Okolo, a civil servant, said that the quality of the service delivery of several MDAs was still poor and unsatisfactory.
He argued that the SERVICOM Office, which was supposed to spearhead the implementation of the service delivery initiative, was not even functioning as it ought to be.
“SERVICOM Units were established in the various MDAs to coordinate the service delivery programme within the MDAs but unfortunately, the units are not functioning well.
“Jobs, which that are not supposed to linger on the table for over 10 minutes, usually experience a week’s delay before they are attended to; sometimes, clients become frustrated because of the poor services rendered to them.
“I believe that the reason for the aberration is corruption. When a client has an issue, the officer in charge will not do his job on time but will expect the client to give him some money before the job is done.
Also, Mrs Vitoria Achukwa, an engineer, said that the Federal Government initiated SERVICOM to provide quality services to the citizens and empower the citizens to challenge service failures.
She, however, noted that the services of most MDAs were still ineffective and poor, arguing that the objectives of SERVICOM had not been achieved, after a decade of its establishment.
“Systems in most offices are not functioning. In my office, some members of staff come to work thrice in a week and I cannot blame them because they have nothing to do even if they come to the office.
“Our tables are bad, the SERVICOM tools and mechanisms are not effective to bring about pragmatic reforms and service delivery improvements.
“Part of our problems in Nigeria is that after launching programmes, we fail to implement them faithfully; that is what is affecting our country.
“If we can implement the service delivery initiative faithfully, SERVICOM will be quite effective and purposeful,’’ she added.
Mr Godson Onome, a lawyer, said that the service delivery of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), which was rated high by the SERVICOM Office as the flagship of public service delivery, was poor and ineffective.
“For instance, availability search which, according to the commission, takes two days to get, takes two weeks or more before it could be ready.
“Post-incorporation services at the CAC, which are supposed to take three working days, take a month or more; as far as I am concerned, service delivery in all the MDAs is still very poor.
“There is nothing to assess with regard to the MDAs’ service delivery because customer satisfaction is still not there
“I am sure some of the MDAs do not even have SERVICOM Units; so, how would you expect their service delivery to be effective?’’ he said.
Mr Raji Babatunde, a businessman, also complained about the poor service delivery of Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), insisting that the commission’s services were not efficient and reliable.
Babatunde said that the crux of commission`s mandate was to ensure the provision of qualitative and efficient telecommunications services throughout the country.
“The commission is not achieving the mandate. An agency can only achieve its mandate if its activities are essentially customer-focused but unfortunately, things are not working that way in this country,’’ he said. (NANFeatures)