UBEC to Revive State Offices for Improved Service Delivery
By PATIENCE OLUMATI
The Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC has reviewed its operational guidelines to enhance service delivery at the state and local government level.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi stated this in Abuja during the opening of a 2-day meeting on Strengthening Zonal and State offices for improved efficiency.
Dr. Boboyi explained that the need to review the operational structure became necessary due to lapses which had hindered productivity.
” It got to a level that staff members sent from Headquarters to the States will not bother to visit the Zonal office. The staff members in the Headquarters were known to engage their colleagues in the field offices to monitor projects and activities for which they were fully paid to perform. This led to the submission of inaccurate reports which resulted in payments being made for shoddy jobs and uncompleted projects.”
“The effects of these negative developments did not only rub off on the degree of the efficiency and image of the Commission as a whole, it promoted redundancy and absenteeism among the staff members in the field offices. To say the least, the morale of staff members in the field offices began to ebb.”
“It was these developments that triggered the decision of the Management to review its implementation structure, arriving at the critical decision that some reorganisation is necessary and urgent and that one of the key areas that should receive immediate attention is the strengthening of the Zonal and State Offices and empowering them to perform the functions assigned to them when they were established”.
He called on zonal Directors and State Coordinators to ensure strict implementation of the new strategies in line with the ministerial deliverables.
Dr. Boboyi emphasized that the States had a critical role to play in the implementation of the universal basic education, UBE programme in the country and so, all hands must be on deck to achieve the goal.
” You are all aware that the States and Local Governments are constitutional responsibility for UBE delivery in Nigeria. The Federal Government is only intervening, through its agency, the Universal Basic Education Commission, in the form of assistance to the States and Local Governments in Nigeria for the purposes of uniform and qualitative basic education throughout Nigeria.This means that basic education implementation is taking place in the States and by the States”.
The Executive Secretary of UBEC gave assurances that the needed resources for the restructuring would be made available.
Dr. Boboyi urged the state actors to fully engage in the deliberations at the meeting and make their inputs for a successful implementation.
