1. HANDING OVER NOTES IN THE SERVICE
BY
ONIKE RAHAMAN
INTRODUCTION
Vacuum should not be created by either transfer, secondment or resignation
of any officer in both civil and public service. There should be effective
handing over process between the outgoing and the incoming officer to
ensure continuity in the public service delivery. Of course, handing over
process also applies in the private sector.
Hand over notes are kept in the files as parts of official records of an
organisation and are good reference materials by the serving officers in the
civil/public service on assumption of duty.
When politics is allowed to take precedence over establishment rules in
matters of bureaucracy, it becomes practically impossible to have proper
handing over process. So, politicization of handing over process is a bane to
efficient management and continuity in administration.

2. RATIONALE FOR HANDING OVER PROCESS
Handover notes in both civil and public service is a key cultural practice that
every good Administrator or Schedule Officer must learn how to write. It is a
routine practice that when ignored can lead to outcry or sort of organisational
conflict, particularly between the officer leaving a position/schedule and his
successor.
In essence, an officer in the civil/public service leaving his current
employment on the grounds of resignation, transfer, secondment and long
leave, is required to prepare handover notes to assist the successor to
properly take over and to effectively carry out his duties. Other specific
personnel mobility that warrant handing over process include intra and inter
ministerial transfer, interservice transfer across the nation, withdrawal,
voluntary and compulsory retirement.
The need to achieve continuity as a necessary demand of constantly changing
positions in the civil service makes the handing over process an imperative. Of
course, the handing over process is one of the mechanisms by which
continuity is achieved in both public and civil service. Also, the operative
instrument in the handing over process is the handover notes.

3. All officers involved in movement within the service are to properly
participate in handing over process by either prepare, receive or sign the
handover notes to ensure continuity in the administration. When handing
over process is properly handled, it can easily facilitate the incoming officer’s
understanding of the goals, aspirations and intentions of his Ministry as well
as problems and constraints in the way of effective performance.
In short, Any officer in the service who is about to leave his/her position
permanently is required to write handover notes or an officer leaving his
position/job schedule to assume new responsibilities within the same
ministry, department or unit.
HANDOVER NOTES
Handover notes are briefs prepared by outgoing schedule officers to guide
their successors. The handover notes is important to provide the incoming
officer with necessary ideas, information and insights into the specifics of the
new schedule, challenges, constraints, achievements and may reflect future
projection.
A well prepared handover notes assist the incoming officer to settle down on
time and understand with ease the demand of the new office so as to make
the transition period to be short and smooth.

4. The best period to finalise handover notes is during the week the officer is
leaving the position. Ideally, there should be a period of overlap with the staff
member’s successor allow for interactions, necessary exchanges and
opportunity to clarity issues. Some officers hold erroneous impression that
handover notes is meant to probe or witch-hunt the predecessors, whereas it
is intended to acculturate or assimilate the incoming officer into the culture,
practice or job tasks.
As an organisational instrument, handover notes should be rich in brevity,
precision, coherence arm free and should be devoid of ambiguity. As a matter
of fact, handover notes are to be factual rather than analytical.
GUIDELINES FOR EFFECTIVE PREPARATION OF HANDOVER NOTES
The style, arrangement and contents of handover notes may vary from one
ministry or extra ministerial department to another across the nation.
However, the below template is presented as fitted into the common practice
in civil/public service:
* The Heading
* Introduction/Preamble
* Description of schedule of duty/job tasks

5. * Office Routine
* Unfinished and Pending matters
* Problems and Constraints relating to the schedule being handed over
* Inventory of assets, office furniture, equipment, files and other records
* Signatures
i. THE HEADING
Heading is the title of handover notes and it always indicates name and post;
the officer who is handing over and the one taking over; month and year of the
exercise. The ministry or extra ministerial departments in which the handing
over process is being effected needs to be indicated. As an illustration, we may
have a heading such as Oyo State Ministry of Education, May 2014: Handing
over Notes from Mr. S.A Emiola, Director High Education, to Mr. N.A Sheu, the
Director Primary Education. The heading should at a glance show who and who
are involved in the handing over exercise and where and when.
ii. INTRODUCTION/ PREAMBLE
The introduction or preamble to the notes often consists a short outline of the
prevailing circumstances under which the outgoing officer assumed
responsibility/took over the schedule. The introductory aspect is expected to
cover brief/ information on when, from who and to where he is moving after
handing over. Information about the new place of assignment may be necessary
in case the outgoing officer needs to be contacted for clarification in the future.

6. iii. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCHEDULE/JOB TASKS
This section of the handover notes captured the nature of the schedule and the
operational guidelines. Here, an outgoing officer is required to summarize the
job tasks, duties and responsibilities as succinctly as possible.
Similarly, it makes good sense to start this section with a brief run-down on the
structure or organogram of the department/unit including other officers who
work up to, down to or with the outgoing officer. This is particularly indicated
where the outgoing officer is the head of the unit.
iv. OFFICE ROUTINE
This aspect of the handover notes should describe or outline the procedure,
processes or fixed ways of performing the duties. Under office routine, the
outgoing officer is expected to outline the various meetings of the unit and
their time, venue and frequency. The nature and status of the various meetings
need to be indicated; for example, meetings which are statutorily specified in
the enabling instruments of the parastatal or board need to be indicated.
v. UNFINISHED AND PENDING MATTERS
This is an aspect of handover notes where ongoing projects, unfinished
businesses and pending transactions are listed. While listing current projects

7. you are working on, provide the start date, the goal, employees participating on
the project with you or employees who provide resources for the project,
information related to cost and budgeting and the anticipated completion date.
If your job is heavily focused on project works, summarize the purpose or intent
of each project, as well as the expected outcomes. Here, priority attention
needs to be paid to matters being kept in view, matters which are to be brought
up on future dates for consideration, letters whose replied are still being
awaited, memoranda or enquiries from outside agencies as well as the dates of
impending meetings. With effective handling of this aspect of handover notes
the new schedule officer will know where to start and this will guarantee
continuity of operations.
vi. PROBLEMS AND CONSTRAINTS
Under this section of the handover notes, the outgoing officer is expected to
state the problems and constraints which militated against efficient and
satisfactory performance of the schedule. It is desirable that an outgoing officer
should proffer suggestions on measures to be taken to improve on the
performance.

8. vii. INVENTORY OF ASSETS, OFFICE FURNITURE, EQUIPMENT,
FILES AND OTHER RECORDS
It is conventional to present in the last major paragraphs of handover notes a
list of the office furniture, equipment or any other important records including
reference materials and reports, which are being handed over. Records of
inventory shall be helpful to an outgoing officer in the preparation of his
handover notes.
viii. SIGNATURES
As a matter of convention, handover notes usually ends in a format which
provides space for the names, designations, date and signatures of the two
officers involved in the handing over exercise. The actual handing over process
requires that the two officers involved should meet, exchange ideas and seek
clarifications where necessary.
Essentially, both the outgoing and the incoming officer are to sign the handover
notes usually in triplicate at the end of the handing over exercise, if they are
mutually satisfied.
The original of the signed notes is filed, while the duplicate and triplicate copies
are retained by the officer who has taken over and the outgoing officer

9. respectively. Information provided in the handover notes should not only be
sufficient, but must be complete. An incomplete or inaccurate handover notes
may pose potential problems for the two officers involved in handing over
exercise.
CONCLUSION
All officers irrespective of cadre or status must exercise a great sense of
responsibility in preparing handover notes whenever the need arises. Personal
feelings regarding the timing and circumstance of transfer should not dictate
the tone, length and contents of handover notes. Of course, concern should be
for the incoming officer to take over the schedule smoothly and painlessly in
the interest of the entire service.
In case there are reservations and observations on the contents of the
handover notes, the incoming officer may after signing the notes call attention
to the grey areas in writing as a postscript to the handover notes. This is the
conventional way of treating cases of incomplete or inaccurate handover notes.
Such proscript when properly channelled may lead to probe /audit. Outright
refusal to prepare handover notes by officers on transfer may lead to adverse
report or disciplinary action in certain circumstances. Hence, all officers must
imbibe the culture of ensuring proper handing over process any time there is
deployment from one schedule to the other or transfer from one ministry to
the other.