GOV DICKSON SWEARS-IN NEW COMMISSIONERS, CHAIRMAN OF LOCAL GOVT SERVICE COMMISSION, TASKS THEM ON SERVICE DELIVERY

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has charged newly sworn in commissioners and chairman of the Local Government Civil Service Commission to fine tune the government policies and reforms geared towards enhancing service delivery.

Governor Dickson gave the charge at the swearing in ceremony of three commissioners, Mr. Tubonah Talbot Nengi, Ms. Nengi Rufus-Spiff and Mr. Freedom Osain as well as chairman of the Local Government Service Commission, Chief Adolphus Forcados in Yenagoa.

Following the swearing in of the commissioners, Chief Walter Ben-Wari, who was formerly of the Ministry of Special Duties, Bayelsa East Senatorial District is now Commissioner for Water Resources, while that of Tourism, Mr. Julius Otele moves to Housing and Urban Development.

Accordingly, Mr. Talbot Nengi takes over the Ministry of Special Duties, Bayelsa East, Mr. Freedom Osain is to man the Ministry of Tourism and Ms. Nengi Rufus-Spiff as commissioner for Women Affairs.

He said the officials were coming into the government at a time, when the direction of his administration has been made clear to all and sundry, urging them to key into the vision of the government to meet the expectations of the people.

Governor Dickson, particularly charged the Commissioner for Women affairs to interface with the women, especially those in the rural areas for their economic empowerment, stressing that, his administration abhors the giving of handouts to achieve political gains.

The Governor also noted that, Ms. Spiff would serve as a board member of the State-owned Micro Finance Bank as well as oversee the Centre fro Women Development in the State.

On the repositioning of the Local Government Service Commission, Governor Dickson called on the new chairman to continue with the implementation of the on-going reforms, pointing out that, he was appointed to serve out the tenure of his predecessor.

His words: “You are aware that, we have undertaken a lot of reforms in the local government administration system of our State. A number of reforms are lying in your office. The bloated nature of the workforce; the fact that, local government workers hardly ever turn up for work and several other issues, that are critical to the survival of our local government system. 

“I know that the commission has been pursuing that programme of reforms and I expect you to go there, take a look at it and re-work it, where necessary. Where policies are right; continue with them; where they need to be fine-tuned for effectiveness, do so.

At all times work to protect the core values that our government stands for. I know complaints will come, but remember that, we are interested in preventing fraud and waste; we are also interested in making people go to work as well as promoting professionalism in the public service.”    

Daniel Iworiso-Markson

Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Bayelsa State