Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Wednesday, said that the last six months were used to restructure the civil service, and that now the state was ready to have commissioners.
Therefore, Governor Obaseki added, he had directed wards and local governments in the state to submit names to be nominated as members of his cabinet.
This is coming six months after he was sworn in for a second term in office. Read the inauguration story HERE.
The governor said these while speaking to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that a screening committee was in place that would screen those selected from their wards and local government areas.
He further stated that having restructured the civil service and introduced technology, he was ready for the political class to give the needed political direction to the administration.
According to him, “Well, you see I spent the first four years as governor. So, I know what the challenges of governance are.
“We spent the last six months trying to restructure process of government, particularly the civil service, because no matter how great a cabinet is, if the government and the functions of government are not operating properly, the executive cannot function optimally.
“So, the last six months, we’ve tried to redefine the structures of governance, working through every layer of the civil service, define the roles, the responsibilities, trying to understand the resources available, and put in place key performance indicators and scorecards for every MDA in government.
“And this we did, such that the civil servants have no excuse to say they couldn’t do what they’re doing because of political interference.
“So, we’ve tried to keep politics out of government in the last seven months; to redefine the processes to define the structures and define the service delivery criteria for government.
“Now that we have done that, we now hired a whole crop of civil and public servants. We have about 1,500 of them we have hired, and we’re introducing technology.
“We have, perhaps, one of the best training facilities in the country. And we are now ready for the political class, for the commissioners, to now step into government and do what they’re supposed to do and give political direction to the process of government.”
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