The House of Representatives is to work on a bill that will strengthen the services of SERVICOM and give it the necessary powers to ensure implementation of the service delivery initiative of the Federal government.

Presently, the SERVICOM office is an appendage of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and services as an administrative instrument without any constitutional functions and structures.

A bill will give the Office more teeth and grounding in its activities to improve service delivery in government agencies through its SERVICOM Compliance evaluations and Ministerial units.

Mr Leo Ogor, Chairman of the House of Representatives’  Committee on Governmental Affairs under which the activities of the office fall says such a legislative backing would make achievements recorded so far endearing and ensure adequate funding for evaluation and training activities.

Speaking when he led members of the committee to an oversight function visit at the SERVICOM Office, Mr Ogor said the Civil service in Nigeria needed a reorientation and change of attitude to their roles which he believed a well established SERVICOM office would bring about through sensitisation, monitoring and evaluation. He said the House of Representatives was desirous of an effective civil service that would deliver efficient and timely services to the citizens as a matter of right.

He commended the achievements recorded so far by the office in the area of evaluation of services by government agencies, implementation of pilots to demonstrate how services could be improved in selected service windows and the establishment of the SERVICOM Institute, set up to train Civil servants on service improvement and customer sensitivity.

Mr Ogor said he was shocked that SERVICOM was completely left out of the budget despite all its activities saying a bill will ensure that it had its own distinct budget and capacity to deliver on its mandate without any hindrance. He observed that such a bill will define the relationship between the office and government ministries, department and agencies in a manner that would ensure that recommendations made by evaluators would be implemented to improve services.

Earlier, the Senior special Assistant to the President and National Coordinator of SERVICOM, Mr. Ad’Obe Obe briefed members of the committee on the activities of SERVICOM. He said the office would soon be handing over Service improvement pilots to respective ministries to commence roll out.