By John Ewah
The Edo State Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa Esq., has said that the Monday Breakfast Meetings held by his office with all Departments and Agencies attached to the Office of the Head of Service, have assisted immensely in helping them keep very important issues in the State’s public service on the front burner. The Head of Service made this assertion in a recent interview with journalists in Benin City, the State capital.
Okungbowa added that the meetings enable Heads of MDAs and everyone within the Office of the Head of Service ecosystem, meet regularly to appraise the efforts made in their respective areas and also help them in devising future action plans and strategies.
According to Okungbowa, “The meetings enable everybody within the Office of the Head of Service ecosystem to meet regularly and keep abreast of the efforts made in our different areas. So we review every item concerning the jobs that we do and the progress made the previous week, and then chart the way forward for the next. With the various discussions, we keep everyone on the front point and ensure everyone is kept in sight. If there are issues given to us by the Governor to treat, we assign such issues to the appropriate department and further evaluate how much progress has been made on that front”.
“We are taking a lead from the Governor, His Excellency Godwin Obaseki, who has often advised that we keep abreast of things in real time because the multiplicity of government functions may make it very easy to forget some things along the line, and may even make us not give enough attention to some while giving so much attention to others. So to have that balance and to ensure that every necessary thing is kept on the front burner, it is important to do a review as often as possible”, Okungbowa added.
Responding to the appraisal of the current reforms within the public service, Okungbowa said: “The Breakfast Meeting is a unique strategy to ramp up our knowledge of the things we do. Since we began, it has been quite good, as people are now getting to see the dynamism that has been introduced by the current administration into governance especially at the level of the civil and public service. It is unlike before, when it was just a transactional service, where services were rendered without considering whether or not people were satisfied. We are moving beyond that to where we are strategic in our thinking, approach to work, assessment of what we are doing, and most importantly, concerned about the impacts we are having on the public.
“The meetings have made it possible for internal communications to be effective in the service; this in turn has brought a lot of synergy and collaboration in all the allied departments. Also, it has helped to identify departments not doing well and areas that need to be covered. We often cross-fertilize ideas in every meeting, identify the lapses and loopholes and deal with them at this level before they migrate into major crises”.
While reacting to the perception of the public service in the State, Okungbowa noted that the narrative about the public service is changing, especially with the current reforms being carried out by the Governor Godwin Obaseki administration.
“Until now the perception people had towards the service was nothing to be proud of, because many perceived that the service was docile, unresponsive to the needs of the people and unclear about the mandate they are meant to achieve. Many saw it as a service that workers just received salaries for, without putting in the work, a service that was ill-prepared for development, and not able to power the initiatives of the government.
“The narrative is however changing today as the service is now more systematic, strategic, transformational and productive. The service is now responsive to the desires and yearnings of the people and we are going along at the same pace as political leaders to Make Edo Great Again”.
Also speaking on the recent rationalization of various MDAs in the State, Okunngbowa explained: “Recently, the State Government rationalized the MDAs from 22 ministries to 18 ministries, which invariably brought the numbers of MDAs from 105 to 72 in total. The reasons for the rationalization include among other things, curbing of waste, avoiding duplication of functions and a drastic reduction in the cost of governance without sacrificing effectiveness”.
“Our last breakfast meeting was held to prepare everyone for how to handle some of the fallouts of the rationalization exercise which would involve a lot of movement within the service. The exercise was discussed extensively and strategies were devised on how to emplace a living system that will be able to respond, not on an ad-hoc basis, but on a continuous basis. Our Human Resource Management (HRM) department is being strengthened to enable expeditious and effective response to changes that will occur in the system”, Okungbowa added.
