Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Mr Darlington Bassey Eyo, has been commended for his inclusive and transformative leadership, achieving giant strides within his eight (8) months in office. The commendations came from the Cross River State House of Assembly during an oversight function at the Commission on Monday.
Addressing the Chairman, Commissioners and Management Staff during the visit, the Chairman House Committee on Judiciary, Public Service Matters, Public Petitions and Conflict Resolution, Rt. Hon. Davies Etta, appreciated the chairman for the achievements recorded so far, even in the midst of lean resources at his disposal. He commended the administrative foresight of Mr Darlington, saying that the achievements are visible.
“Our visit here today, is first, familiarization and secondly, is for oversight. We draw our oversight function from sections 128 & 129 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), where the House of Assembly derives the powers of oversight to check executive excesses, reveal corruption and of course, conduct in-depth investigation and also summon the executive (where necessary).”
He noted since inauguration eight months ago, it was the first time the committee was visiting the commission to carry out its oversight functions.
The committee Chairman further streamlined the focus of its enquiry to include three broad areas bothering on; Capital Projects, Achievements so far and the challenges hampering smooth operation.
Responding to the questions, the Commission chairman enumerated several achievements, covering (but not limited to) the commission’s core mandate which is training and retraining. He apprised the committee with the, extempore, about the several trainings carried out so far; for Commissioners, management staff and the newly employed. This is coupled with the several partnerships entered into by the commission, already yielding impact in the service.
“Mr Chairman, Members of the Committee, I would like to first of all, welcome you to the Cross River State Local Government Service Commission, on this maiden visit as a committee. This is the first time I have the privilege of receiving the committee.”
“We arrived here about eight months now. When we resumed here, we were confronted with a whole lot. For instance, inheriting a budget that was not prepared by us.”
“The Capital project of the Commission, is Training. That forms the crucible of what we are doing here; it is just training and retraining of staff.
So, since we arrived, we have carried out several trainings.
We have trained staff even out of Calabar, taking them to Abuja, Lagos and other places. Even the Commissioners had the opportunity of being trained.”
Mr Darlington further enumerated the successes to include; payment of backlog of the annual rent of the commission which not paid for several years and running into millions. He noted that the commission could not afford to witness the embarrassment of eviction by the landlord for not paying, which most times disrupted activities.
On the challenges faced, the Chairman pointed out few areas such as irregular remittance of the 1% percent which is meant for the running of the commission, noting that this has stalled activities.
Another area identified as a challenge is the commission not being responsible for the payment of staff salaries as done in other states which according to him, hinders smooth operations. He called for a legislation that would help in ensuring that the commission handles payment of salaries to eliminate the bottlenecks while implementing administrative decisions.
He further drew the attention of the House Committee to the intractable issue of over-bloated payroll that has caused the state huge revenue loss due to ghost workers. He informed that so far, the commission in synergy with the Auditor General For Local Government, have carried out staff audit that has discovered several people on the payroll that are currently not in the service.
Commending the Chairman and his team, the Vice Chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Mrs. Mercy Akpama (Yakurr II), expressed deep commendations, while also expressing concerns about the commission not being in charge of salaries payment saying; “you cannot fire those you are not paying.”
Another Member of the Committee, Hon. Samuel Neji Abang (Ikom 1), commended the governor for commissioning the newly renovated office complex, calling for its immediate and full utilization. He also appreciated the chairman and commission members for the transparent recruitment exercise carried out recently. He stated that the smooth, rancor-free exercise is made possible by the innovative ideas of the current administration.
He also stated that for the the first time, employees were recruited and received their salaries almost immediately.
The Member representing Obubra 1 who is also a member of the Committee, Hon. Agbor Ovat, thanked the chairman for his open door policy which according to him, has given equal opportunity to all. He noted that no administrative bottlenecks has been witnessed so far, as is the case with other government organizations and called on others to emulate the commission.
The visit, which was coordinated by the Clerk of the Committee, Mr Augustine Ukukong, an Assistant Director in the Assembly (Legislative Matters), was a huge success, as both institutions Synergized on possible ways to rejig local government administration.
Prominent at the meeting were; The Commissioners; Permanent Secretary, Eld. Dr. Ekpenyong Esuabana; Director of Administration alongside other Management Staff.
© Mark Eneng
