Gombe state government organizes workshop for Directors to enhance efficiency, productivity

By Rachel Bwala

Gombe state Deputy Governor, Dr Manassah Daniel Jatau, has declared open, a four- day capacity building workshop for Directors in the state to improve productivity, and efficiency in public service delivery.

The workshop, organized by the Office of the Head of Civil Service, Civil Service Commission and Bureau for Public Service Reforms was declared open at the ICT Centre of Gombe State University.

Delivering his address, the Deputy Governor, said the workshop was carefully designed after series of consultations with experts in order to inject the spirit of handwork, dedication, commitment and expertise on the participants to improve service delivery.

“This may be the first workshop of it’s kind that you have witnessed in the past administration, a pointer to what the administration of His Excellency, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya stands for, basically this administration believes in transparency, accountability, responsiveness, being rational, fair, and in short good governance”, he said.

“As it relates to this workshop, the criteria for appointment into the position of Permanent Secretary is laid bare given opportunity to all of you to compete, the contest is open and limited by factor, this is unlike in the past where the criteria for such appointment remained mysterious, as if we are in Bermuda Triangle of the 19th century”, he added.

He charged participants on the need to make optimum use of the opportunity towards improving on their leadership qualities, pointing out that absence of quality leadership has always been identified as the bane of progress in Nigeria.

While noting that all organizations have their peculiar challenges, Dr Manassah Jatau, explained that it is the ability of the organization to overcome the challenges that differentiates effective leaders from ineffective ones, charging them to aspire to proffer solutions to challenges bedeviling the civil service.

He recommended that the capacity building workshop should start at recruitment of entire career staff and not to wait until they are Directors in order to avoid lots of damages to the service at the other lower levels of the service.

The Head of Civil Service, Gombe State, Alh. Bappayo Yahaya, described the capacity building workshop as very crucial in the process of appointment of the new Permanent Secretaries which makes it mandatory to all Directors.

He said, the workshop was born out of the dogged determination and zeal of the present administration to revitalize and reinvigorate the civil service to make it more result oriented in tackling the ever increasing challenges of governance in the state.

In her remarks, the Chairperson, Civil Service Commission, Gombe State, Hajiya Rabi Shuaibu Jimeta, explained that, public officials must be equipped with the knowledge and manifesto of political leaders to be able to implement their campaign promises.

She further explained that the workshop is to aquaint the Directorate cadre with requisite knowledge as the success of the administration is significantly dependent on the quality of advise they give to the government.

Earlier in his address, the Director-General Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Alh. Yusuf Dauda Kaltungo, informed the gathering that the exercise is first of it’s kind aimed at introducing reforms in the service in line with administrations commitment to ensuring productivity in service delivery.