• Lawmakers’ constituency projects for monitoring

The stage is set for ministers to present their scorecards on the delivery of ministries on the eight priority areas of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination/Head of Central Coordination Delivery Unit (CDCU), Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman, dropped the hint in Abuja yesterday.

They (ministers) were told by the President that will undergo compulsory periodic (quarterly) assessment to rate their performances in line with the identified priority areas.

The Tinubu’s administration also designed and released a Citizens’ Delivery Tracker App to monitor the performance of ministers and their portfolios.

Nigerians can use device to give feedback to the government on policies, programmes and projects.

The implementation of constituency projects allocated to senators and House of Representatives members are to be assessed too.

Ms. Bala-Usman, who spoke at the Go-Live Event of the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker, said restated Tinubu’s commitment to an open and transparent government in the larger interest of the nation.

She said the President has mandated all ministries to hold quarterly sectorial engagement sessions with citizens.

Unfolding Tinubu’s new strategy called: “Citizen-centric approach to governance,” the special adviser said since the ministers signed performance bonds, they will be evaluated on the eight priorities of the President.

The areas are:

•      Reforming the economy to deliver sustained and inclusive growth

•      Strengthening national security for peace and prosperity

•      Boosting agriculture to achieve food security

•      Unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development

•      Enhancing infrastructure and transportation as enablers for growth

•      Focusing on education, health, and social investment as essential pillars of development

•      Accelerating diversification through industrialization, digitization, creative arts, manufacturing, and innovation; and

•      Improving governance for effective service delivery.

Ms. Bala-Usman said: “For each of these priority areas, we agreed on specific deliverables and developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which formed the basis for the performance bond which all ministers and permanent secretaries signed with the President in November 2023. These parameters will guide the quarterly assessments and annual scorecards, which the CDCU is mandated to present to the President.

“The President also insisted that the pain points of citizens must be recognized in developing the deliverables and KPIs. In line with the directive, the CDCD worked with our partners to further review the deliverables into granular issues that have direct impact on the lives of Nigerians.

“At this juncture, I would like to give a little background on the Central Delivery Coordination Unit (CDCU). The Unit was established by Executive Order 13 of 2022 to, among other things, coordinate and monitor the implementation of presidential priorities through the development of deliverables and KPIs for each ministry.

“These deliverables and KPIs were developed in consultation with the ministries and culminated in the signing of performance bonds by ministers and permanent secretaries of each ministry with Mr. president.”

She said President Tinubu has decided to allow Nigerians to know what the government is doing and assess ministers because of his commitment to “citizen-centric approach to governance.”

“The CDCU has also developed a Delivery Reporting Framework and Template, to accurately assess and report the performance of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).

“We are adopting international best practices and utilising globally recognized performance indicators and benchmarks to assess the performance of MDAs in the implementation of government priority programmes, projects, and policies.

“The Delivery Desk Officers are the foot soldiers tasked with the responsibility of tracking and reporting the performance of the MDAs ahead of the quarterly assessment.

“Our partners from the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and Delivery Associates also joined us to share experiences from across the world at this four-day capacity building programme,” she added. Hadiza unveiled Citizens’ Delivery Tracker Application, which is available at the URL: app.cdcu.gov.ng.

She said: “It (the tracker) will be available for download on the Google Play Store and in the Apple store within the next month. This application will enable citizens to know the deliverables and key performance indicators to track.

“It also presents citizens with the opportunity to give real-time feedback on their assessment of policies, projects, and programmes of government from anywhere they are in the country.

 “Additionally, to actualise Mr. President’s desire to give all citizens the opportunity to join the CDCU in the tracking and monitoring of the policies, projects, and programmes of the Federal Government in line with presidential priorities, we have, over the past couple of months, worked to upgrade the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker App.

“The Citizens’ Delivery Tracker is an application which affords citizens the opportunity to view the priority programmes and projects of the Federal Government on their devices.

“We upgraded this application through consultations with a wide spectrum of stakeholders, and it is now ready for use.”

Giving insights into how the government plans to engage the citizens, the special adviser said: “The CDCU is also expected to sensitize citizens-based organizations, working with the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and other civil society groups on the delivery of the presidential priorities.

“This is to be done by coordinating engagements on the priority programmes, initiatives, and projects, and providing up-to-date information using the citizens’ app and other channels of communication.

“Indeed, Mr. President is so committed to a citizen-centric approach to governance that he has mandated all ministries to hold quarterly sectorial engagement sessions with citizens.

“These citizen engagement sessions are part of universal deliverables that is applicable to all ministries and the engagements have already commenced for Q1 in consonance with Mr. President’s directives.

“The import of the preceding points is that the President is keen on leading an inclusive government through the involvement of all Nigerians in the governance process and that the CDCU is central to the actualization of this presidential aspiration.”

Responding to a question, she said: “The execution/ performance of constituency projects can be tracked in the Ministry of Special Duties.”

[TheNation]