PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu is expected to receive a report on the performance status of the Federal Government’s ministries, departments and agencies for the first quarter of 2024 this week.
Presidency sources with knowledge of the developments said the report will form the basis of the President’s assessment of his ministers will be submitted on Wednesday.
“What I know is that the report on the performance of the ministers has been submitted to the President and the report for the first quarter is being prepared,” a source who preferred to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak told this newspaper.
A second source, who did not want to be mentioned, also debunked speculations about some ministers being marked for a sack, describing them as “rumours”.
“People are carrying those rumours all over the place. May 29 is just weeks away, if the President is shaking up his cabinet, we would know by now,” the senior official who is privy to happenings in the cabinet stated.
On April 8, 2024, the President’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, who heads the Central Delivery Coordination Unit, affirmed that the CDCU had received reports from at least 20 of the 35 ministries.
She explained that the Q1 assessment report would be a product of a joint effort of the ministers, citizens and industry experts.
Bala-Usman, who spoke on Arise TV’s News Night, clarified, “Our submission is for the first quarter. So, the first quarter has just ended, and we have initiated the assessment process. The ministers have all been asked to submit their performance based on the deliverables.”
She asserted ministers will be assessed “based on what is out there in the public space. They would write to say, ‘Based on every deliverable you have given me, this is what I’ve done within the first quarter of the year.’
“Through the Citizens Delivery Tracker app, Nigerians will also say, ‘this is what we’ve seen the minister do’ and they would aggregate it,” said the presidential aide.
She also revealed, “The ministers have all been asked to submit what they’ve done in the first quarter. We have received submissions from about 20 ministries. We’re expecting the remaining and then we’re going to conclude the assessment and make a submission to the President.”
However, it could not be confirmed when the CDCU would transmit the Q1 report to the President as efforts to reach the CDCU did not yield results. As of Sunday evening, Bala-Usman did not respond to calls or text messages sent to her mobile line.
On October 17, 2023, she had announced that January 2024 was the ideal month to begin the exercise as all ministries would have received their budgets for the 2024 fiscal year.
“We’re looking to commence an assessment of the respective ministries in January 2024. We’re going to have a quarterly assessment of performance, which would culminate into an annual scorecard,” the former Chief of the Nigerian Ports Authority explained in an interview on TVC.
At the opening of the three-day Cabinet Retreat for Ministers, Presidential Aides, Permanent Secretaries and top government functionaries on November 1, 2023, President Tinubu said Ministers in his Cabinet will only retain their offices based on performance, which will be reviewed quarterly.
“If you are performing, nothing to fear. If you miss the objective, we’ll review it. If no performance, you leave us. No one is an island and the buck stops on my desk,” said the President.
On January 24, 2024, the CDCU trained at least 140 officials to track and assess the performance of federal ministries, departments and agencies ahead of the assessment.
A senior official working closely with the CDCU told our correspondent that the officers were drawn from 35 federal MDAs.
They comprise “A permanent secretary and directors of planning and other officials, four each from 35 ministries.”
“They are considering the modalities of the assessment, deliverables, the key performance indicators and the reporting mechanisms,” the official who preferred to remain anonymous revealed.
In early April, the Presidency launched the Citizens’ Delivery Tracker, which outlined 204 deliverables and 888 indicators for evaluating government MDAs.