Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Friday, revealed that Delta State is heavily indebted through the activities of the immediate past governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, just as he said undermining the debt burden plaguing the state, there must be a way to carry on government activities to deliver electoral promises to Deltans.
Okowa made the revelation during a meeting with Senior Civil Servants who paid him a visit at the Government House in Asaba on Friday.
Although Okowa failed to reveal the quantum of debt hanging on his government, he said “we are in a major debt overhang, a very difficult financial state, we should appreciate that and the onus is on all of us to find a way out, we will need to find a way to input on the lives of our people in Delta State.”
He told the civil servants that the meeting was necessary to “discuss the debts over hang, brief the civil servants on the present state of things and rub minds on the way forward, both now and the years to come.”
He told the senior civil servants led by the State Head of Service, Patrick Origho, that government needed the full cooperation of civil servants to succeed, explaining that no government could make any meaningful impact in the citizen’s lives and deliver electoral promises outside the support of the civil service in any government.
To this end, he said “I want to let you know that we are in partnership with you because without you, we cannot succeed,” stating that a disciplined and trustworthy civil service was a necessary requirement for success in government.
According to Okowa, “we desire a civil service that is trusted by Deltans and the government of Delta State,” adding, “you should be disciplined in your hearts and instill discipline among the working class, you are the role models people look up to and the success of our administration will largely depend on you, there is a burden on each of you for us to deliver on our five point agenda.”
The Governor commended the civil servants for their contributions to the growth of the state.
Earlier, the Head of Service in the state, Mr Patrick Origho had congratulated the Governor and his Deputy on their successful assumption of office and pledged an unalloyed loyalty of the civil servants to Senator Okowa-led government.
As a former sneior civil servant and a member of the Better Government Initiative, I found your evidence on the subject of accountability very helpful. It prompts a few thoughts. I have always rationalised my conflicting roles by having allegiance to the Constitution. Tricky I know when it is not written down but it is a helpful notion which allows you to recognise the responsibility to ministers operates within the bounds of their constitutional responsibilities and they include the duties in the ministerial code which in turn helps to identify when to say no minister A second point you do not refer to the possibility that the new Departmental Boards could have some impact on the accountability arrangements especially around the chief executive role. They might in particular help with the problem created by the multiplicity of Accounting Officers.A bigger issue for me is the nature of the accountability. I have seen Permanent Secretaries mauled by the PAC it wasn’t pretty but they carried on mainly because no one really thought they they personally could have prevented the specific disaster user review. What they could have been accountable for would have been the systems used in their departments generally to control major projects and delegations of authority. The BGI is currently pressing the PCRC of the HoC to recommend that there should be standards for policy making and associated legislation agreed between the Executive and Parliament and that Parliament should have some quality assurance mechanism possibly a joint Legislative Standards Committee, supported by the NAO, to make sure that standards are met. Permanent Secretaries could be held accountable for the internal arrangements to meet those standards.Phillip Ward