PUNCH
The Federal Government will begin quarterly assessments of the performance of the 48 ministers in January when their ministries will have received the budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Ms Hadiza Usman, explained that the annual scorecard would be reviewed during periodic retreats where performances would be assessed against key performance indicators.
Speaking in an interview on TVC television on Tuesday, Usman stated, “We’re looking to commence an assessment of the respective ministries in January 2024. We’re going to have a quarterly assessment of performance which would culminate into an annual scorecard.
Before that, however, the presidential aide said the Federal Executive Council members would participate in a retreat in early November where the key performance index would be defined and the ministers would sign a performance bond.
“We’re going to have a cabinet retreat in the first week of November where the final details will be hashed with the full cabinet in place with Mr President.
“At the end of it, we’re going to culminate with the performance bond. They’ll be signed by each ministry, every minister, and the Permanent Secretary will sign a performance board with Mr. President,” she explained.
The bond will detail the deliverables each ministry plans to achieve within the one-year 2024 budget cycle.
Usman added, “That performance bond is what we’re going to use to track the performance of that minister.”
She noted that the Federal Government would prioritise citizens’ engagement to ensure that Nigerians were part of the assessment.
Apparently referring to the EYEMARK app introduced last December by former President Muhammadu Buhari for project performance tracking, Usman said “We’re going to deploy an application, a software, where citizens are able to report back on project-based deliverables that the federal government has committed to doing within the period to 2024.”
Although she did not state in specific terms what the deliverables for each ministry would be, the former Nigeria Ports Authority managing director affirmed that the deliverables must align with 2024 budgetary provisions.
Detailing the process, she explained, “We sat with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. We have worked effectively to define exactly the deliverables for each ministry.
“And those deliverables are also deliverables that I mentioned cascade to the agencies of government. So, for example, you have the sectoral deliverables for a sector in health, and everything that is contained within the value chain or the ecosystem within that sector will be contained within the deliverables.
“Those deliverables are translated into key performance indicators for the respective ministries. And once you have your key performance indicators, you’re able to clearly understand what your deliverables are over the period of the four years of the administration.”
The presidential aide added that her office had commenced talks with each ministry to iron out the specifics.
She stated, “We had bilateral sessions with all the ministries. In Nigeria as of today, we had each ministry take ownership of their respective deliverables, which we were able to synthesize across our Presidential Advisory Council reports. We were able to take from the national development plan document, and also the renewed hope manifesto we came up with.
“Deliverables for each ministry will define the key performance indicators. In furtherance to that, we’ve also ensured that the provision for the upcoming 2024 budget is in coherence with what has been defined as your deliverables.
