‘Greed, not low income, cause of corruption in civil service’

AS the war against corruption rages on, the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HOS) Danladi Kidasi, at the weekend attributed the high rate of corruption in the civil service to personal greed and lack of contentment, warning that henceforth, any civil servant caught in the act will face severe sanctions.

“War against corruption is for all of us. Corruption has nothing to do with your income level, but personal greed. Civil servants can make the difference. There is a lot of misrepresentation out there about civil servants. We are tagged the most corrupt officers and this must change henceforth,” he stated.

Kifasi stated this at the closing ceremony of the two-weeks training on Structured Mandatory Assessment-Based Training Programme (SMAT-P) for the first batch of 85 grade levels 08-16 officers in the Federal Civil Service held at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSN) in Kubwa, Abuja.

He noted, “We must begin to advertise ourselves by our outstanding character wherever we are so that when we return home and to our offices, people will see the clear difference in us.”

According to him, the SMAT-P has been put in place to equip civil servants with the basic skills and knowledge in order to discharge their duties professionally, knowledgeably, competently and effectively.

He also disclosed that the office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation has identified the need to build the capacity of the civil service in batches across the board.

“The SMAT-P has been developed in partnership with reputable international training organisations and world-class experts.”

Kifasi said, “The curriculum and training material for the scheme have been fully developed in partnership with the Management Development Institutes, both local and international training experts.

“The new SMAT-P, with new methodologies and approaches of its delivery, is strategically planned to be a continuous programme with the intention of providing participants the needed opportunity to imbibe philosophy and principles of effective and efficient service delivery.”

“It is my conviction that the learning outcomes would undoubtedly assist and guide participants tremendously in the application of its principles in the day-to-day activities of their official responsibilities. This will result in better service delivery to the people of this great country in line with the aspirations of the present administration at the federal level.”