Commissioners and management staff in charge of government’s ministries in Bayelsa State have been reminded of the need to focus more of their attention on policy formulation to achieve set goals.
The state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, gave the advice while granting audience to the leadership of the Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria, Bayelsa State Chapter in Government House, Yenagoa.
He said government’s business would be enhanced if the mainstream ministries concentrate on fashioning out relevant policies and allow their parastatals or agencies to drive the implementation of such policies.
The Deputy Governor maintained that such division of labour would not only help to eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks in task performance but also boost productivity in the various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) of government.
“Sometimes I disagree with some of our commissioners because they appear not to have properly settled down on their role. The role of a ministry, especially where you have a parastatal that has the capacity to implement, is to formulate policies.
“We really want the ministries to focus on policy formulation and then supervise, while they leave the implementation for their parastatals, because where you want to do the two, you will not be able to achieve much.
“So, those of you who are now at the management cadre in the various ministries should engage in formulating policies because I believe our ministries are not doing enough in this regard”, he said.
Senator Ewhrudjakpo equally urged members of the Environmental Health Officers Association to shun activities capable of denting their personal image and profession in the discharge of their statutory responsibilities.
He reassured them that the present administration’s ongoing civil service reform programme, which includes needs assessment, would address most of their requests, including employment of more hands.
On the issue of alleged rejection of holders of higher national diploma (HND) from pursuing post graduate studies at the state-owned Niger Delta University, the Deputy Governor promised to get in touch with the Management of the school to ascertain their position.
The Bayelsa number two man, however, advised the HND holders who are desirous of studying for Masters degree and beyond to obtain the relevant pre-qualifications such as the post graduate diploma (PGD) to enable them gain admission.
Earlier, the state President of the Environmental Health Officers association, Bishop Tareware Ebikipade, listed the activities of the association to include promoting safety of lives and property, waste management, pollution control and enforcement of public health laws.
He thanked the Deputy Governor for his swift intervention sometime last year in addressing the role conflict between its officers in the Yenagoa Local Government Area, Sanitation Authority, Health and Environment ministries.
While appealing to government to employ fresh environmental health officers to replace retiring ones, particularly in the eight local government areas, Bishop Ebikipade, assured that the Association had put in place effective measures to deal decisively with any erring officers.

By: Ariwera Ibibo-Howells, Yenagoa