Bauchi State Government has expressed displeasure over what it described as the nonchalant attitude of Commissioners and other top functionaries in attending public functions even when the Governor is in attendance.
Expressing the displeasure at the opening of a 3-day sensitisation workshop for Commissioners, Special Advisers, Permanent Secretaries, and other top government functionaries on Wednesday, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barr Mohammed Kashim Ibrahim, said that “The Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir, has always expressed his displeasure with this attitude, and it must be checked.”
According to him, “It is disheartening that when I looked at the seat reserved for the commissioners, I could only count eight of them out of the twenty-four commissioners we have in the state.”
“This is not good; the program is meant for them, and they are not here. Anyways, let their colleagues who are here call those who are not here to make it here,” the SSG added.
He then told the Head of Civil Service to “direct the Permanent Secretary, Establishment Matters, to call each one of them on his or her mobile phone number to attend this very important event. On our own, the Chief of Staff and myself are supposed to be part of this program, and we have made it a duty upon ourselves to be here in attendance.”
The SSG further said,”We will be here tomorrow and the day after the programme so that we can have a comprehensive list of those who will be here and not so that we can present it to His Excellency. I had a lengthy discussion with him late yesterday, and he also talked about our attitude of not attending programmes at all and with no justifiable reasons.”
He stressed that the administration has prioritised training and retraining of members of the service in order to have the best results in governance.
He also stated that civil and public servants must be up and doing in order to achieve set objectives, calling on the participants to pay attention to the papers that will be presented.
The SSG therefore declared the workshop opened with the assurance that everything discussed would be transmitted to the Governor for necessary action with the aim of improving service delivery to the people of the state.
Also speaking, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Dr. Hassan Gamawa, had earlier berated the Commissioners for their lackadaisical attitude towards attending functions, a development he said was not speaking well.
The CoS stressed the importance of attending public functions, as it will afford them the opportunity to know the current happenings and how to propose solutions to them.
He urged those who were present at the time of the opening ceremony of the programme to make it a point of duty to remind those who were not there of the need to attend the programme that was organised for them.
In his opening remarks, the Head of Civil Service of the State, Yahuza Haruna Adamu, stated that the workshop was necessitated by the fallout from the retreat held last year with the aim of improving service delivery in governance.
He added that, “Sometime last year during our retreat, the Governor, in consultation with the lead consultant, and in order to move the state forward, found it necessary to have this capacity-building workshop and remind you of the milestone we have reached.”
The HoS added that “it is an opportunity for us to appraise ourselves and see how we can progress and proffer solutions to our problems in order to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people of the state generally.”
“With these little remarks, I wish to use this opportunity to most sincerely welcome each and every one of you and to also request that you kindly use your phones to inform your colleagues that are not here to please come quickly; the program is for all of us,” he stressed.
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