The Chairman of Isoko North Local Government Council, Prince Godwin Ogorugba, Monday performed the foundation laying ceremony for the construction a new administrative building, which he said is geared towards efficient and effective service delivery of government business.
Performing the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of the new building at the council secretariat, Ogorugba, said his administration is re-writing the history of the local government with the construction of the new standardized administrative building comparable to other befitting administrative buildings across the state, 30 years after the last administrative block was built in the council secretariat.
Speaking to newsmen during the foundation laying ceremony, he said the reason why the management took the decision to build a new administrative secretariat is for efficiency, saying that there is always an appalling situation where you have two or three supervisors sharing one office and management staff staying at the extreme end of the same office.
“What we agreed upon is to build a secretariat powered by solar energy light, where all the management staff will be in one place for efficient and effective service delivery.
“It is a building that will accommodate the chairman, secretary to the local government, head of personnel management, heads of department, the treasurer, and all supervisors,” he added.
Ogorugba pointed out that the construction of the project, which is expected to be completed within six months, will have other features within the building such as the executive chambers and conference hall.
He added that “instead of management staff going outside to get food to eat, there will be a cafeteria within the new building where they can have food and snacks, a shopping mall and recreation facilities.
“We have been going to other local government councils and we discovered that our local government is still lagging behind in terms of infrastructures. As this project is going on, the management has taken it upon themselves also to fence the local government council secretariat.”
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The council chairman emphasized that the reason for the fencing, “after 30 years of creation, the people of the community are encroaching into the local government land from all sides.
“There is no gate in the council secretariat, it is free for all, people now transit left, right and centre. Criminality is at its peak, over five air conditioners have been stolen before I came into office.”
Speaking further, he also said that the purpose of the project, is to get the headquarters of the local government to be standard like every other local government, adding that while this project is on-going, they will commence the building of the staff clinic very soon, where all staff on duty can get treatment.
“I do believe, we will leave the place better than we met it, like I told some of the councillors that it is not going to be business as usual. Our name will be printed in gold, so that it will be on record that during our time, this is what we were able to achieve, because we will not remain here forever.
“We have taken our time to sensitize and explain to our people why things must be done differently. The local government autonomy we are talking about is not adding any money, it is how we utilize the funds we met for the people of Isoko North on trust that matters most,” he stated
On the funding of the project, the council boss stated that “before we agreed to start this project, there was a supplementary budget put together by the treasury department and the management of the local government council.
“It was graciously approved by the leader and members of the legislative arm of government of the Isoko North Local Government Council. In all, the project is having the backing of our legislators, the Act was passed and signed into law.”
Present at the ceremony were the top administrative staff, legislators, clergymen and other staffers of the council.
