The Ekiti State Local Government Service Commission chairman Mr Samuel Abejide has charged Directors and Deputy Directors of Works to intensify monitoring of government projects and promptly flag technical irregularities before they result in structural failures and waste of public resources.
Abejide have the charge on Wednesday in Ado-Ekiti during the opening of a two-day workshop on “Monitoring and Evaluation of Developmental Projects in Conformity with Due Process in the Local Government Service.”
Declaring the workshop open, the Commissioner for Training, and manpower development department, Mr Wole Olujobi who represented the Chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, described monitoring and evaluation as an indispensable management tool for modern public administration.
He said effective monitoring was necessary to ensure quality assurance, value for money, timely delivery of projects, transparency and public trust.
The Chairman charged the participants to uphold professionalism, integrity and proactive oversight in the discharge of their duties.
He urged them to inspect project sites regularly, verify technical compliance, scrutinise contractors’ reports and courageously report anomalies before they developed into major structural or project failures.
“You are to inspect sites, verify technical compliance, scrutinise contractors’ reports and courageously flag anomalies before they turn into structure failures,” Abejide said.
He warned the participants against treating monitoring and evaluation as a mere administrative formality, stressing that effective supervision was essential to preventing project failures and ensuring accountability.
Also speaking, Mrs Taiwo Bamigboye, the director of the training and manpower development department who represented the permanent secretary of the Commission, Mr Gabriel Akomolede, urged the participants to remain focused and ensure that they derived tangible benefits from the training.
He said the Commission had committed resources to the programme and expected the participants to make the most of the opportunity by acquiring knowledge that would improve their performance when they returned to their various duty posts.
Akomolede challenged them to look beyond social interaction and make the purpose of the training their priority.
“We should be focused so that at the end of this session you should be able to ask yourself: What have I learned? What have I gained?” he said.
The permanent secretary urged the participants to pay attention during the sessions and ask questions where necessary, saying the knowledge acquired should be useful not only to them but also to others at their various destinations.
“The Commission has committed certain amounts to this programme and the Commission expects us to be the best, to be able to achieve the purpose for which this programme was set,” he said.
He expressed the hope that the participants would return to their various Local Government Areas equipped with practical knowledge capable of improving their duties and contributing to better project delivery.
Written by
Oladija Omolara
