In an effort to prevent the public from obtaining official government papers classified as highly confidential, the Federal Government, acting through the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, has begun to take action.

In a memo posted on the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation’s website, ohcsf.gov.ng on February 19, 2024, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan, the Head of Civil Service, stated that the government was dismayed by the leaks of these documents and that they needed to stop.

As stated in the document tagged HCSF/3065/VI/189 “It has been observed with dismay, the increase in the cases of leakage of sensitive official documents in ministries, departments and agencies.

“This is very embarrassing to the government and therefore unacceptable.

“As part of the efforts to curb this undesirable development, all Permanent Secretaries are to fast-track the migration to the digitalised workflow system and ensure effective deployment of the Enterprise Content Management Solution.

“This will reduce physical contact with official documents, thereby checking the increasing incidence of leakage and circulation of the same.

“Furthermore, Permanent Secretaries are advised to strongly warn all staff against leaking and circulating official information and documents.

“Any officer caught engaging in such unbecoming act will be severely dealt with, in line with the relevant provisions of the Public Service Rules and other extant circulars.”

Recent times, there’s been a rise in the public disclosure of confidential government papers.

Plans to give N500 million in allowances to members of the tripartite committee on minimum wage established by the federal government were recently disclosed in a document from George Akume, the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

A note regarding a substantial sum of money to be set aside as a Hajj pilgrimage subsidy was also spotted in a public area. It was allegedly witnessed coming from the office of Wale Edun, Minister of Finance.

The civil society organization and organized labour, had expressed concern over the two memos and demanded that these allocations be investigated.