The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has been rated high at the presentation of report and award on the deployment of Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR).
The event held on February 1, 2023, at the NCDMB headquarters, Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital as part of the bureau’s tradition of ensuring transparency and accountability in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Speaking during the presentation of the report and the award, the BPSR DG, Dasuki I. Arabi, said the gathering was also to showcase to Nigerians and the international communities as well as contemporaries the unsung qualities and world class standards the exercise revealed about the organisation.
The DG said NCDMB is the first and only agency under the supervision of Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which has enthusiastically submitted itself to undergo the assessment since the BPSR received the marching order in November, 2019 to deploy the tool.
“This is an outstanding pace NCDMB has set and our humble persuasion is for others in the Sector to emulate same and key-into the initiative,” the DG explained.
He also said, “The BPSR’s SAT in 2016 won the CAFRAD African Public Service Excellence Award in Morocco for Nigeria, and was also nominated for the United Nation Public Service Award in 2022.
“Hence, the privilege of having a tool of this nature within the Service for agencies and parastatals to continuously assess themselves against local and international good practice provides the encouragement for continuous improvement and assurances of effective, efficient and equitable service delivery.
“The process of diagnosing the health status of NCDMB commenced in October, 2021 with kind permission of the Executive Secretary to administer the tool to cross section of various categories of NCDMB staff, who were encouraged to be very objective in responding to the statements of good practice while they rate the organisation.
“The findings from the deployment have further reinforced our testament that NCDMB maintains high quality standard in systems and processes and demonstrate uniqueness in today’s fast paced, fast changing and increasingly competitive world.
“In the same light, we desire that the Award accompanying the Report would not only serve a memory of good feat but should continue to stimulate the insatiable desire to be the best in promoting the development and utilisation of in-country capacities for the industrialisation of Nigeria through the effective implementation of the Nigerian Content Act,” Arabi added.
On the uniqueness of the Self-Assessment Tool, the DG said it is fundamentally home grown, hundred percent local content driven and proudly developed in Nigeria, to carefully take into cognisance the peculiarities of the country’s challenges and issues.
Some of the general recommendations of the BPSR report include developing formal code of conduct defining standards of behaviour to which individual Governing Board members of NCDMB subscribe and adhere, fast tracking efforts to open Reforms coordination and service improvement Desk in all its Centres across the country and putting in place mechanism to identify and measure areas of financial risk and prepares contingency plans to mitigate risk associated with changes in Organisational income and funding streams.
The report also recommended NCDMB to procure staff and encourage them to sign an affidavit regarding their commitment not to engage in practices involving a conflict of interests, continue to comply with all the Federal Government financial and accounting policies and ensure frequents training of its staff, among others.
Aliyu Umar Aliyu
ACIO(BPSR)
6th February, 2023
