… Says, Governor Eno Prioritizes Training For High Productivity
UYO
The Akwa Ibom Head of Civil Service, has highlighted the importance of public procurement law in the procurement of public service deliveries to avoid costly breaches in the procurement of goods, works and services.
Elder Effiong Essien stated this Monday, while declaring open a 5-Day Residential Training workshop on provisions of the State Procurement Law for Permanent Secretaries in the State Public Service held at Four Points By Sheraton Hotel, Ikot Ekpene.
Essien, who acknowledged the effort of the State Bureau of Public Procurement and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) State2State, for organizing and facilitating the training, also appreciated the mutual commitment and partnership existing between the international agency which has provided opportunities for the training of Akwa Ibom workforce.
“I must commend the Management of the Akwa Ibom State Bureau of Public Procurement and the USAID State2State for their mutual commitment and partnership that has provided these veritable training opportunities to our State workforce…”, he said.
He reiterated the value of the training which, he said, goes beyond complementing but an effort to retool the key actors in the governance structure of the State Government, whom he described as, ‘chairmen of tender boards’ of their respective MDAs.”
Essien noted that to attain effectiveness and efficiency in public procurement deliveries, there was need for permanent secretaries to be well informed, educated and fully aware of the provisions of the State Public Procurement Law, 2020, saying, “the training is very apt and important.”
He appreciated the State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno, for the importance he places on training saying, Eno’s administration attaches keen interest on transparency and accountability in government services.
He recalled the recently sponsored training of permanent secretaries in the State Public Service on “Leadership and Good Governance”, facilitated by the prestigious citadel of learning, the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON), Badagry, Lagos, consulting, in collaboration with the Office of the Head of Civil Service, in addition to others.
Also speaking, the State Team Lead of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mr. Borve Paago-Imabe, appreciated the support his agency has received from the administration of Governor Umo Eno.
Borve said the major concern of state2state hinges on improvement in public finance management, citizens engagement, gender and social inclusion, as well as conflict mitigation.
The State Team Lead noted that they are also hopeful that government at the State and local levels would adopt policies that ensures improvement on public finance functionality as a theory of change.
According to him, from these measures, improvement in good governance could be achieved.
Interacting with the reporter, a participant at the training programme, who is also the dean, College of Permanent Secretaries, Mrs. Stella Etukakpan, described training as a very important tool that improves productivity in both public and private sectors.
She said for an employee to take an informed and accurate decision, he must be educated and informed since so much is expected of the officer, and in this case, as permanent secretaries and accounting officers, they need to be well guided on the provisions of the Public Procurement Law.
She appreciated Governor Umo Eno for giving them the opportunities to be trained, especially in the application of Public Procurement Laws, expressing optimism that the gained knowledge will help them meet up with the demands of their offices.
It would be recalled that directors, deputy and assistant directors were recently trained on the provisions of the public procurement laws, 2020.
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