Special Duties Department

The Department was created vide Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) circular Ref. No. HCSF/CMO/EM243/17 dated 11th March 2014.

Mandate:

The Department was established to assist the Permanent Secretary in the discharge of his duties. Prior to its creation, Directors, Office of the Permanent Secretaries were appointed to coordinate the activities of the Office of the Permanent Secretaries and supervise its staff. With the creation of the Department, Director OPS was replaced with Director, Special Duties.

Functions:

The functions of Special Duties Department include:

    • Assisting the Permanent Secretary to provide line supervision and general management to all the staff of the Offices of the Honourable Minister and the Permanent Secretary;
    • Execute assigned projects for the Permanent Secretary;
    • Manage assigned direct reporting Units on behalf of the Permanent Secretary as required, to formulate or articulate his/her leadership agenda for the Ministry; Provide support, in times of leadership transition in the Ministry;
    • Manage high-level stakeholder access to the Permanent Secretary;
    • Assisting the Permanent Secretary manage his/her schedule to ensure that his/her activities follow espoused priorities;
    • Coordinate the Permanent Secretary’s response to emergencies;
    • Assisting in the schedule of all staff meetings and briefings involving the Permanent Secretary;
    • Coordinate the daily briefing sessions of the Permanent Secretary’s official schedule;
    • Represent the Permanent Secretary in certain functions;
    • Coordinate the evaluation and assessment of project;
    • Evaluation and Assessment of Constituency projects; and
    • Liaison with National Assembly.

Structure

The Circular, which created the Department, brought all the Units, which hitherto reported directly to the Permanent Secretary, under the Special Duties Department. In this connection, the Department has seven (7) Units with Directorate cadre Officers heading the Units, listed hereunder:

    1. Anti-Corruption Unit
    2. Climate Change Unit
    3. Gender and Human Rights Unit
    4. National Assembly Matter Liaison Unit;
    5. Survey Unit
    6. Stock Verification Unit
    7. Travel and Protocol Unit

Programmes and Projects:

The Department executed a number of programmes/projects in 2016, which include:

    • Ministerial Intervention in emergency projects in water;
    • Development of strategies for innovative funding of Water Resources projects.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

    • The major achievements of Special Duties Department are as follows:
    • Successful coordination of briefing of the Honourable Minister and the Permanent Secretary by Departments, Agencies and parastatals of the Ministry in 2015;
    • Successful coordination of Assessment and Evaluation team of 2015 Constituency projects across the country;
    • Coordination of the Ministerial Delegation to the World Water Week in Stockholm Sweden on 28th August – 3rd September 2016.
    • Publication of the National Water Policy and Strategy;
    • Visit to selected River Basin Development Authorities on Private Public Partnership (PPP) assignments
    • Carried out the successful coordination of assessment and evaluation of Constituency projects in Anambra, Cross River, Benue and Oyo States.

Other achievements include:

    • Coordination of Ministerial Platform held on 16th September 2014 at Radio House Abuja;
    • Organized the Ministerial Delegation to the World Water Week 2013-2015 held in Stockholm, Sweden.
    • Coordination of National Council on Water held on 9th – 13th December 2013, in Kaduna where the Director Chaired the Ministerial Planning Committee of the event.

Achievements of the Units:

The achievements of the Head of Units would be highlighted in their submissions.