Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, has reawakened SERVICOM Initiative in Delta to ensure optimum service delivery to the people across Ministries, Departments, Agencies and local government councils in the state.
Executive Assistant to the Governor on Public Enlightenment (Projects and Policies), Mr Olisa Ifeajika, disclosed this at a news conference in Asaba on Monday.
Ifeajika said that Oborevwori was concerned about deteriorating service delivery across MDAs and local governments and urged public servants in the state to brace up to the new normal.
He said SERVICOM had been around over the years but had failed to make the necessary impact in ensuring quality service delivery.
The former Chief Press Secretary to immediate past Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa said that workers in the state had been adequately motivated to ensure that they provided optimum service while discharging their responsibilities.According to him, as this administration is continuing with the projects of the previous administrations and embarking on new ones, Gov. Oborevwori is also interested in ensuring delivery of quality service to the people of the state.
Ifeajika said: “The new thing is that public service is the blood of government, the brain box. When you have an undisciplined and irresponsible public service, the government of the day is doomed, but that is not the case in Delta.
“Beyond providing infrastructure for the people, there is the need to keep a disciplined public service that will drive service delivery across all MDAs and the local governments.
“SERVICOM was established by the Federal Government in 2004 to render services as it should be in all of its agencies to every Nigerian.
“It was domesticated in Delta in 2009 during the administration of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan via a document signed by him on March 2, 2009.
“As Deltans, you have a right to be served right by government. Public service drives the process of governance.
“I have come to tell us that aside from providing infrastructure, our dear Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori has directed that all public servants must imbibe the culture of SERVICOM.
“SERVICOM in Delta is domiciled in the Office of the Senior Policy Adviser to the Governor, Rt. Hon. Funkekeme Solomon, and so far, they have visited 55 MDAs out of 107 and 25 local government councils slated for sensitization on the focus of government.
“There is a ‘new Sheriff in town’ and the culture of irresponsible attitude to work is gone. When Government is providing services like road infrastructure, the public service must be ready to play its role effectively.
“SERVICOM is now an integral component of governance; every Deltan has a right to be served properly and all MDAs have been told to establish SERVICOM units to ensure compliance in line with the MORE agenda of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori.”
On the conversion of government lands for private use, Ifeajika said: “some persons by way of impunity and blatant arrogance have appropriated government lands for their own use.
“This administration has empowered a Task Force on recovery of government lands to recover every government land across the state.
“If there is any building on those lands, they will be pulled down. So people are advised to stay away from government lands even in the local government areas.
“There is the popular saying that ‘when there is a will, there is a way’. Here in Delta, there is a will to have a disciplined and accountable public service.
“These policies have come, and we must embrace them for the good and sustainable development of our dear state.” Ifeajika stated.