The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Parastatals Monitoring, Mr. Afolabi Ayantayo, has restated the commitment of the State Government to improving the welfare of its citizenry.
Ayantayo, who disclosed this at the Y2020 Ministerial Press Briefing organised to commemorate the first year in office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the JJT Park, Alausa, on Wednesday, said that the present administration will continue to embark on people-centred plans, policies and programmes in all its activities.
In his words “As the State Government repairs and builds new roads, hospitals, clears the drains, invests in the intermodal transport system, empowers more residents, creates more opportunities for economic enhancement and valiantly confronts the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the foremost drive for the administration has always been to improve the lots of the people because of the Governor’s conviction that citizens are the bedrock of democracy”.
The Special Adviser said all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the State Government perform key roles in delivering specific services to the general public, adding that the Parastatals Monitoring Office, PMO, effectively monitors these agencies to ensure they are being optimally administered and professionally run.
Speaking on the activities of the PMO in the last one year, the Governor’s aide said one of the first steps taken was to congregate all Heads of Parastatals and Agencies of the State in fulfilment of its assigned mandate, saying that “In the last one year, the PMO team has visited 94 government companies, agencies and parastatals across the nooks and crannies of the entire area of the State”.
“A detailed report of the visitation has been submitted to the Governor, especially on the need to monitor the Agencies more closely. Each now has a file opened for it. I have directed that minute by minute reports of all their activities on a daily basis must be submitted to my Office. Through this, Mr. Governor can obtain an accurate report on any agency, company, institution and parastatals he so desires. Likewise, the office can through this make recommendations to Mr. Governor on any one of them at any point in time”, he added.
According to Ayantayo, the PMO has also been involved in facilitating cooperation between budding entrepreneurs who have a business relationship with some Parastatals and also embarked on the review of enabling laws, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice (Law Reforms Commission), for Parastatals whose laws are obsolete or hindered by their operational guidelines. Consequently, a total number of 54 enabling laws have been forwarded to the Law Reforms Commission for review.
Taking a peep into the future, Ayantayo said better days are ahead for the PMO despite the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that the Office is on the verge of producing a maiden journal, “Lagos Parastatals”, adding that the major objective of the publication is to provide a quick reference guide for organisations, individuals and corporate citizens who intend to partner with the current administration in moving the State forward towards delivering on its T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda.
The Special Adviser also disclosed that the PMO will be organising training for executive officers of Parastatals in the State to improve their capacity.
He said: “These will involve quarterly workshops (locally) for high ranking members of Parastatals and Biennial (International) strategic management workshops for CEOs of Parastatals and Agencies. The objective of the continuous training of CEOs of Parastatals is to connect top executives of PMO with the vision, programmes, priorities and expectations of the Sanwo-Olu led administration in Lagos State. This skills acquisition programmes are also aimed at developing the participants’ skills and capabilities that are tailored to their specific duties and roles”.
On COVID-19, Ayantayo said the pandemic has slowed down the plans for the first quarter, stressing that some of these plans include the deployment of Shared Service Infrastructure (SSI) among Parastatals and Agencies as well as the Single Billing Platform.
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