By Usman Shuaibu
The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has promised to cement relationship among the Chief Executive Officers of parastatals, the newly inaugurated chairmen as well as the Governing Boards/Councils in the education sector.
He made the pledge while speaking at a one-day sensitisation/consultative workshop organized for the Chairmen of Governing Boards/Councils as well as the Chief Executive Officers at the Federal Ministry of Education which was held on Monday in Abuja.
The minister said the forum which tagged “Administrative Leadership and Financial Management” was held to equip them with the technical know-how of their offices, foster understanding and co-operation between the Boards and the management of the various parastatals.
Adamu, who was represented by Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, said since both the chairmen and executives officers remain the lifelines of their organizations, and with the dovetailing nature of some roles of the chairman and the chief executive officers, clarity was necessary to achieve the required synergy between the two principals.
He explained that roles of the Chairmen were to run the Boards/Councils and set the tone, style and agenda taking full account of issues and strategies for improvement; to ensure members received accurate, timely and clear information in respect of the Agency’s performance; to provide coherent leadership and establish a relationship of trust with the Chief Executive Officer and other members; among others.
The Minister enumerated that those Chief Executive Officers to include: superintending over the day to day running of the Agency or parastatals; preparing and recommending budgetary proposals as well as receiving and implementing approvals from the Board.
He said that though the Chief Executive Officers was charged with the day-to-day running of the Agency, this according to him, it would not be out of place to acquaint the Chairman of the Board with the activities.
Speaking earlier, the permanent secretary in the Education Ministry, Arc. Sonny Echono who welcomed the participants, said that as in government practices, it was imperative that the newly inaugurated Board members were kept well abreast of their functions.
According to permanent secretary, the exercise was fifth in the series of sensitization and consultative meetings with those who are charged with the administration of the education sector, noting that a similar exercise had been done for the Universities, the Polytechnics and Colleges of Education.
Echono, who later spoke in the capacity of a Resource Person clearly shared his wealth of experience on the Public Service Rules (PSR) which he said the participants ought to know the various procedures in dealing with staff matters; terms and conditions of engagement; rights and privileges of employees; procedures to e adopted throughout the tenure of the officer.
Representative of the Acting Chairman of Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) Mr. Akeem Lawal, the representative of Director General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP)
Engr. Ishaq Yahaya and the Director Legal Service, Mrs O.O. Ajibade were the other Resources Persons who spoke on Enabling Laws for each organization; the Public Procurement Act and Financial Regulations respectively.
