Ogun tasks public service managers on accountability

By Bimbola Oyesola 

Ogun State Government, yesterday, called on Human Resource (HR) managers to ensure accountability and sensible resource management in their work in the public service.

Permanent Secretary, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (Bpsr), Ogun State, Jola Oyeneye, gave the charge yesterday, during the state’s administrative officers’ day, with the theme: ‘Accountability and Resource Management in the Public Service: The Role of HR Managers.’

He said if a state’s public service was not accountable and diligent in managing its resources, then the state is already on the verge of imminent collapse.

Oyeneye, who noted that resources in the public service are a trust for the general populace, urged the resources should be held responsibly not to create suspicion and abuse.

According to him, it is the delicate role that thrusts the responsibilities of policy development and implementation in the care of public service HR managers. 

He listed some of the traditional roles of HR managers in the public service, which, he said, include establishments’ matters that majorly focus on manpower planning, recruitments, on-boarding, postings, discipline, training and retirement.

Oyeneye equally listed some emerging roles for the 21st century, such as mainstreaming diversity into every aspect of the public service human resource management system, management of sexual harassment in the workplace, technology disruption in the public service and other emerging issues.

In his contribution, President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Olusegun Mojeed, said the theme calls for strategic people management that is responsive, adaptive and able to constantly identify and provide the knowledge, skills and behavioural attributes needed to achieve sustainable goals.

He said professional HR management in the public sector must drive a change management agenda that would bring about and entrench a new paradigm in leading and managing people.

He, however, commended the Ogun State government for providing a platform for the growth and development of the civil service, adding that the governor had continued to pay attention to human resources in the workplace.