Commissioner Applauds RSG’s Staff Training

Rivers State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Barrister Isaac Kamalu has applauded the series of training and retraining of Rivers workers, saying it was designed to strengthen the state civil service and adequately position the government towards ensuring sustainable budget.
The commissioner who stated this last Friday while declaring open a training workshop organized for staff of the Ministry in Port Harcourt, said the Rivers State government has the capacity to execute and implement budgets that would impact on the lives of the people and engender infrastructure development without wasteful spending.
Represented by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr. Felix Odungweru, the Commissioner said that the state government has put a reform in place to streamline the state’s budget process and institutions as well as make it a potent investment for public policy.
He explained that the programme was geared towards capacity building and higher productivity among the staff of the Ministry.
According to him, the training was organized to begin series of capacity buildings, hand out practical lessons and training that are geared toward a better and realistic budget that is policy based.
He therefore called on the participants to avail themselves of the opportunity by putting their best in the discharge of their duties.
Also speaking, the Director for Budget, Mrs Titilola Cline disclosed that the state was among the three best states in budget implementation, pointing out that the state was Federal government directive-compliant in budget classification in the country.
She said that the training was necessitated by the state’s historical method of projecting revenues which do not meet modern standard.
In a goodwill message, the project Coordinator, Rivers State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) project, Mr. Kelcious Amos explained that Budget reform is a sub-component of the Public Financial Management Reforms of the SEEFOR project aimed at institutionalizing a reform process that is at par with international best practices.
Amongs stated that a reform was necessary to ensure proper allocation of public funds and effective implementation of budget. He therefore urged those involved in the system to take their assignments seriously in ensuring that the government does not lag behind in public financial management process.