For their outstanding performance in office, Timipre Sylva, minister of State for Petroleum Resources; Uche Orji, managing director/CEO, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Ahmed Idris, accountant-general of the federation (AGF) and Chiedu Ugbo, managing director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company Ltd; have bagged BusinessDay Excellence in Public Service Awards 2020.
Other top government officials who equally received the award for their excellent service delivery, are: Mohammad Abubakar, minister of Environment; Richard Adebayo, minister of Industry, Trade and Investment; Uchechukwu Ogah, minister of State Mines and Steel; Abubakar Bello, MD/CEO, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM); Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM); Alex Okoh, director-general, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE); Oyeyemi Kale, statistician-general of the federation/CEO, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Others include Bayero Farah, director-general, Nigeria Institute of Transport Technology (NIIT); Hamza Bokki, managing director, Nigeria Police Force Pensions Ltd; Junaid Abdullahi, executive secretary, Borders Communities Development Agency (BCDA); Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA); Muhammad Isah, chairman, Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and Mohammed Abubakar, managing, Galaxy Backbone ltd (GBB).
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The awardees were recognised for distinguishing themselves by promoting good governance and development in their respective ministries, agencies and departments in the last one year.
The Excellence in Public Service Awards – the fourth in the series is an annual event that celebrates functionaries occupying strategic positions in the federal administration, who in the performance of their responsibilities, embody the best values of responsible policy formulation, operational delivery excellence and broad stakeholder.
This is the 4th edition of the prestigious Excellence in Public Service Awards which are open to federal ministers and heads of departments and agencies.
This year’s event had in attendance a host of dignitaries and respected traditional leaders across the country, including, Umaru Kwairanga, (Sarkin Fulanin Gombe) who was the Father of the Day.
“What makes the awards unique is that the judges consider both the remarkable successes achieved in the fulfillment of the winners’ mandates at their individual institutions as well as the means employed to deliver them such as stakeholder coalition-building, and sustainability considerations,” notes Frank Aigbogun, publisher of BusinessDay Newspaper.
“Faced with shrinking budgetary allocations and marching orders to deliver President Muhammadu Buhari’s Next Level vision, many of the winners have had to apply innovative strategies and stringent resource management skills to achieve their goals,” said Aigbogun.
At the award/dinner which held Thursday night at the International Conference Centre Abuja, the chairman of the event, Umaru Abdul Mutallab who is also chairman, board of directors, Jaiz Bank urged public servants in the country to double their efforts towards making Nigeria a better and more secure place to live.
Mutallab commended the recipients and urged them not to rest on their oars until the citizens are safe from molestation and kidnapping.
The former chairman of First Bank Plc, who noted the myriad of challenges currently facing the country, expressed optimism that the public officials will come up with solutions, as institutions such as BusinessDay continue to identify and celebrate those public servants that are doing an excellent job.
“In the area of security, they are working, but we hope they can do more so that people can go about their activities without fear of being kidnapped. We are not yet in perfect condition, but I believe it is something that can be improved upon. I believe we are all very proud of them, we hope that they will deliver more so that the nation will be a better place”, he said.
The accountant-general of the federation, Ahmed Idris, in his remarks applauded BusinessDay for recognising rewarding hardworking public servants in the country, noting it is an indication that the work being done by the recipients and others like them in government are being noticed.
“The BusinessDay event is an award to deserving public servants. I salute the courage in sustaining the award in the past four years. It is gratifying that the basis for which selection is made for this award is success. This award is proof that the government is performing. If someone comes to the public sector and singles out one for award, the government is the one that takes the credit, “he said.
Idris disclosed that the Federal Government has introduced measures for greater transparency and accountability in the public financial system:
“It has brought about sanity generally in the conduct of public officers particularly in managing public finances. Furthermore, in an effort to ensure maximum revenue generation, and accurate remittance the Federal Government has approved the posting of treasury directors to some key federal institutions, eventually we will extend this posting of revenue directors to all agencies of government. Presently, the government has taken the financial transparency and accountability campaign to a higher level by inaugurating the Auto Treasury Portal to give Nigerians access to financial transactions of MDAs. The essence of this is to be more open,” Idris said.
Speaking at the event, Ogho Okiti, managing director of BusinessDay Media, said the winners emerged through a meticulous process that took into consideration all parameters sufficient to measure the progress and contributions of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
He added that the selection criteria were predominately based on what the awardees have achieved under their watch over the last year, which included but not limited to the introduction of new and innovative methodologies of service delivery and implementation of strategies that have wide-reaching impacts on the sectors they operate in and the economy in general.
Okiti, while noting that the operations of MDAs in the public sector are interrelated, said BusinessDay adopted globally acceptable metrics in recognising those that have performed exceedingly well over the last one year as demonstrated in their contributions to the development of the Nigerian economy.
“In this regard, we converged here today to reward, recognise and celebrate some distinguished ministers, heads of departments and agencies for their selfless, laudable services to the nation while executing the mandates of their individual institutions”, the MD said.
“It was not an easy task arriving at the list of winners, in view of the fact that the Nigeria’s public sector is quite large and the incredible performances of the MDAs are significant. Notwithstanding, in this year’s edition, the Award Committee painstakingly selected the winners,” he added.
