BOSS, Another Aregbesola’s Service Delivery To Osun People – DG

The government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has made another giant stride in service delivery to the people of the State of Osun with the inauguration of BOSS, Bureau of Social Services. 

BOSS, an independent organ, which has direct reportorial to the Governor, has the mandate to ensure compliance in response to the imperative of assuring excellent public service delivery to the people of Osun State.

The Director General of BOSS, Femi Ifaturoti, told PM EXPRESS that the birth of the Bureau of Social Services represents another  first of the Aregbesola’s administration which he believes can be replicated by other progressive governments in Nigeria.

According to him, BOSS incorporates community participation as a new innovation not only in project monitoring, but also attaining a near-perfect measure of the social impact of government’s activities.

“Through the dedicated telephone lines which ring simultaneously on eight tables at the BOSS office, persons calling to report any anomaly on any on-going public infrastructure project are given immediate attention and the complaint is redressed within the shortest possible time.

“Also, through a network of OYes Volunteers, three per local governments and area offices, 93 in all, BOSS is deploying resources that are trained and equipped with survey questionnaires, to capture social impact for our Documentation and Archiving Unit, from which the Evaluation Unit can apply its performance measurement templates and evaluation parameters. We are on the verge of software acquisition which would ensure push-button access to the status of the projects, programs and policy execution for the Governor and relevant stakeholders, ” he said.

The Director General, a legal practitioner, revealed that the activities of BOSS have caught the attention of World Bank, which has shown interest in what they are doing. He said: “As a result of sharing our experience and processes, we have not failed to catch the attention of some potential partners. After watching one of our presentations the World Bank came to BOSS office on a two-day appraisal mission and at the end of the exercise approved BOSS as the State Operations Co-coordinating Unit for the Youth Empowerment Social Support Operation (YESSO).

“The World Bank Sector Leader, Human Development and his team were satisfied as to BOSS’s suitability, not being an implementing agency, but watchdog, to be the one-stop office for Driving the Beneficiary Targeting Mechanism, Custody of Beneficiary Register and all Social Safety net programs in the State of Osun.

“This calls for even harder work. Fortunately, they have pledged to build and enhance our internal technical capacity to handle this task. To this end, a YESSO desk has been opened at BOSS.

“Through the use of objective performance indicators, BOSS sets targets and baselines. We routinely collect data on these indicating and compare actual results with targets. In the evaluation method, we analyze whether the intended results were or were not achieved through examination of the implementation process.

“Governance after all, is about the welfare of the generality of the public. We are acquiring appropriate world class software to complement and aid our process flow which has been designed as a hybrid, borrowing from the Public Sector Evaluation templates of some western, oriental and African democracies, to evolve our own unique P.M forms.

“Our Team of dedicated Staff will continue to work selflessly to improve on our in house processes and ensure. Cutting edge delivery of our mandate.

BOSS has a culture of integrity and profound sense of mission and our team will not be tempted by anybody. It is not a witch- hunting engine.

“Our delight is not to get as many people, agencies and organizations into trouble. Rather, to put everyone on their toes, and maximize the comfort of the governed.

“We will feel the ultimate rush of fulfillment only when we are able to attain zero percent usage of our “thumbs down” stickers.”