23rd November, 2017
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode on Thursday charged civil servants to shun being slaves to trivia tasks and embrace absolute accountability in the discharge of their responsibilities.
Ambode spoke at a two-day training programme for Local Government Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, supervisory Councillors and directors in the state Civil Service held at the Golden Tulip, FESTAC area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Dr. Benson Oke said it was important that the public service continued to improve and not become a slave to trivia and repetitive tasks.
He said it was always beneficial for civil servants to take yet another look at the problems they were meant to solve in order to discover new and more effective methods of solving these problems, adding that all these endeavours must be pursued in the understanding that quality was never an accident but the result of high intention.
Ambode stated that the training was critical because governance arrangements in the public service were keenly observed and often criticised while the significant of governance failing attracted huge attention as they should and that one significant failing could taint a whole sector.
The governor also said the training was imperative because the electorate wanted a greater public sector transparency, accountability and equity.
“With the recent initiatives by the Federal Government to curb corruption, restore due process and respect for government procedures, rules and regulations, improve security by strengthening anti-robbery and related agencies states, hence the need to ensure that they meet the highest standards and that governance arrangements are not only sound but are seen to be sound becomes very critical and imperative,” he stated.
Speaking, Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami said the training was meant to sharpen and upscale the skills of public servants for better performance.
He said the training would be continuous so that public servants could effectively deliver qualitative service to the people.
Lagos State House of Assembly Committee Chairman on Establishments, Training and Pensions, Adebayo Famakinwa explained that the training was meant to strengthen the administration of Lagos State and charged public servants to be accountable.
Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, Babatunde Rotinwa said the training was meant to build the capacity of public servants towards efficient delivery of services to the people.