Nigeria Content Online

The Lagos State
government, last week, warned officers against dereliction in the
treatment of official correspondence and files, just as it advised
ministries and agencies to reduce their line of reporting for effective
service delivery.

This was contained in a circular issued on August 25 by the head of service, Adesegun Ogunlewe.

In a bid to make
the civil service more efficient, the state government issued a
directive early this year giving officers in the state public service
48 hours within which to treat and complete assignments on
correspondence and files.

The HOS, however,
observed that the long line of reporting system adopted in most
ministries and agencies of government where supervising officer minutes
assignment to subordinate officers, who in turn minute the same
assignment to two or more low ranking officers, was not only causing
undue delay in the treatment of correspondence but also made it
difficult to track officers responsible for any delay.

This long chain of
command, according to Mr Ogunlewe, “is rendering the 48 hours deadline
on completion of assignments ineffective and of little or no
significance.”

He, therefore,
advised supervising officers to reduce the line of reporting in their
respective MDAs and take steps to put appropriate tracking mechanism in
place.

According to him,
“supervising officers are enjoined to cultivate the habit of minuting
mails and files to a particular officer in charge of a given
responsibility for effective action, rather than passing it down a
chain of command.”

In order not to
leave room for any lapse, he further added that in the absence of the
head of the MDAs, mails and files should be handled by the next most
senior officer, in accordance with the laid down regulations.

Mr. Ogunlewe warned
that any form of ineptitude or outright dereliction of duty on the part
of supervising and subordinate officers in the treatment of official
correspondence and files would attract appropriate sanctions.