Permanent Secretaries to attend Exco Meetings (30/6/08)

Henceforth, Permanent Secretaries in Cross River will participate in the proceedings of the State Executive Council meetings and make contributions.

Addressing newsmen at the end of the weekly State Executive Council meeting, Wednesday, the Commissioner for Information, Ntufam Edet Okon Asim explained that the decision became imperative because Governor Liyel Imoke sees them as partners in the business of state building, adding that without them it becomes difficult for commissioners to perform their roles or carryon, on their own.

Asim said the step is taken to correct ills of the past where Commissioners were seen to be the only cock to crow in their various Ministries, taking decisions without appropriate consultations with Permanent Secretaries and other line directors.

The commissioner disclosed that during the meeting Imoke also expressed so much passion for the state and its citizens as his constituency which with the elevation of members of the executive council, is a privilege to serve the people because, service is seen as a sacred duty which they owe the people, adding that he also stressed on some very serious issues such as the aspect of procurement procedure in the Ministries.

He stated that the governor has directed that procurement has to be a joint business between the Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and other line Directors because every body has to be involved while stressing the need for desk officers in various Ministries to be properly trained in order to achieve an effective service delivery, saying that Imoke has also frowned at situations where procurement is teleguided by some officers that are charged with that responsibility.

Asim said henceforth, all procurement should be made public and no public office holder should be seen to be getting involved unnecessarily or under mind the procedure and directives as it were.

On the Civil Service, he noted that there will be periodical checks on the performances of public office holders by Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the Ministries which calls for effective performance as every body is directed to fix his mind and address issues as previously put in place by the various templates and guidelines for performance.

This also calls for regular training and in house training amongst ministerial officers to update and build further capacity for effective service delivery, adding that the Governor has reassured Cross Riverians of government’s preparedness to deliver the goods of good governance as all nooks and crannies of the state must be touched, he pointed out.

According to him, the governor wants the people to asses and judge for themselves the ability of the government to deliver.

Government House Press