Ministry mulls implementation of self-assessment tool for staff performance

By Amaechi Agbo

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in compliance with the Federal Government’s directive to adopt an automated Self-Assessment Tool (SAT) for staff performance, has organised a one-day training for its staff to implement and drive the directive. 

Speaking at the training programme, the Permanent Secretary, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, represented by the Director, Special Duties, Mrs. Fausat Lawal, said the tool designed by the Bureau for Public Service Reform (BPSR) is to enable ministries and agencies assess their strengths and weaknesses and subsequently employ the outcome of the self-evaluation as a management tool to create continuous improvement in the service. 

He explained that the exercise was not only in compliance with the government’s directive but also expected to be used to set priority for an action plan to further reposition the ministry for optimal performance.

The Permanent Secretary, therefore, urged the management and staff of the ministry selected for the training to maximally cooperate with the BPSR team for the success of the initiative.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, the Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) Mr. Dasuki Arabi, said SAT is a web-based tool designed to find out the strengths and weaknesses of an organisation to determine areas that need further strengthening. 

Arabi, who was represented by Head, Strategy Innovation and Research Department, Mrs. Mercy Okon said, explained further that it is used to assess or diagnose the current health of an organization,  examine its strengths and weaknesses to ascertain its performance.

“The self-assessment tool contains 100 statements of good practices with a rating scale which will result in sections and result charts and priority areas for action planning”, he said. 

He added that the exercise is just to assist the organisation’s performance and promote service delivery while urging the participants to be open-minded in their responses. 

The SAT methodology constitute 3 focal groups structured into Directorate, middle and junior cadre officers and each were taken through the assessment exercise.