The 1988 Civil Service Reforms In Nigeria

The 1988 civil service reforms in Nigeria

The civil service was greatly reformed in 1988 in line with the recommendations of the Dotun Philips Civil Service Review Panel established in 1985 by the Federal Government.

Major points of these reforms are as follows:

• The minister, not the permanent secretary, assumed responsibility as the chief executive and accounting officer of the ministry. He was responsible for the policies and programmes of his ministry.
• The permanent secretary was now called director-general and his appointment was now to be entirely political, i.e. he may retire with the government that appointed him. He may however, be appointed by a new administration, but the appointee could reget the appointment and still in service if he did not wish to retire yet.
• There was professionalism of each ministry. Each officer now made his career in the ministry or department of his choice to acquire the necessary experience required for his efficiency in the civil service. The system of centralised pooling of administrative, executive and clerical officers was stopped thus also ending the inter ministry transfer of officers.
• Each ministry was to see to the appointment, discipline and promotion of its staff following the guidelines provided by the federal civil service commission. The Federal Civil Service Commission recruited staff for Grade Level 07 to Grade Level 10 while individual ministries appointed officers of Grade Level 11 and above.
• The federal civil service commission now did the following under the reforms.

• The horizontal structure of the civil service was based on three major functioning departments.

1. Personnel department
2. Finance department, and
3. Planning department

A vertical structure in a ministry, to improve professionalism and specialisation should consist of dimensions, which could be broken down into branches, which could be further broken into specialised sections.

• Each ministry established its own personal management board and its committees. Its composition must reflect a fair graphical spread. The principle of federal character was applicable to the recruitment of officers from Grade level 7 to Grade level 10. Promotion of this calibre of officers must be based on merit, while the federal civil service commission remained an appellate body for aggrieved or dissatisfied officers.
• The Central Bank and Ministry of Budget and Planning were located in the office of the president while the Productivity, Prices and Income Board was located in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
• The office of the head of service was abolished at the federal level, while that of the secretary to the government remained with the incumbent weilding considerable political and administrative powers.