The Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has declared the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) a “Silver Level” organisation classed as Level 2, with a performance level of 74 percent. This implies that the agency’s performance meets expectations in essential areas of responsibility, resulting in an overall quality of work that is generally good, with most critical organisational goals met.
This was contained in the summary report on the deployment of BPSR’s Self-Assessment Tool (SAT), presented to NIMASA Management by the Director General of BPSR, Mr Arabi Ibrahim Dasuki.
The BPSR boss appreciated NIMASA’s DG, Dr Bashir Jamoh for what he described as his exemplary leadership and strong desire for optimal performance and reform to ensure the agency’s systems and operations remain strong.
Dasuki said: “We are indeed impressed by the openness, professionalism and decorum the staff exhibited throughout the duration of the exercise. It is an assurance that under your watch and guidance, there are rejuvenated change agents who will help you to accomplish and break new grounds as far as your mandate is concerned. I will like to state that the award accompanying the report would help to stimulate the insatiable desire to be the best to achieve safe, secure shipping, cleaner oceans and enhanced maritime capacity in line with best global practices towards Nigeria’s economic development”.
As contained in the BPSR report, NIMASA’s key areas of strength include corporate governance, which ensured the establishment of an anti-corruption policy with an entrenched whistle-blower mechanism for the agency; strategic planning and operational leadership; robust and accounting policies that comply with the Federal Government’s financial regulations. This is in addition to a fully functional procurement process, which has keyed into the e-procurement policy of the Federal Government.
The BPSR also listed NIMASA’s operational and service delivery processes, human resource management, partnership and resource mobilisation as key performance management and results, as some areas the agency has excelled when compared with some other government agencies.
While appreciating the BPSR for diligently assessing the agency, Jamoh assured that NIMASA management would ensure the implementation of all recommendations contained in the report, adding that much progress had been made since 2022 when the SAT was deployed.
“We have made much progress in the past one year. Our automation process has advanced much more within the past 12 months. NIMASA has introduced a customer experience center, which has greatly improved our ease of doing business as an organisation. We have also acquired new vessels for both staff welfare and operational monitoring and enforcement purposes. Just as we accepted the recommendations of IMO Member State Audit Scheme (IMSAS) and worked towards closing all identified gaps, NIMASA will strive to implement recommendations contained in the report submitted to us today”, he assured.
Established in 2004, BPSR is the lead agency and ‘engine room’ for integrated reform initiative, implementation, coordination and harmonisation. It introduced the institutional SAT as a practical approach to support the Federal Government in its vision to transform the Nigerian public service into a virile, well performing, professional and customer oriented institution.
Following the marching order by President Muhammadu Buhari for BPSR to deploy the SAT in all federal ministries, departments and agencies, NIMASA was one of the few destinations that readily accepted to undergo the assessment.
