By Friday Idachaba, Lokoja
MANAGING Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Mr Bola Oyebamiji, has charged management and staff of the Agency to sign performance bond to meet the aspirations of Mr President on Inland Waterways and Blue Economy.
Oyebamiji disclosed in his welcome address at the opening of a two-day Special Retreat/Workshop with the theme: “Repositioning The Inland Waterways Authority For Excellence” on Tuesday in Lokoja.
The NIWA Chief Executive Officer urged the management and staff brace up and ensure all hands remain on deck to add value to the system in diverse ways saying that the the objectives of NIWA and attaining excellence at sea are achieveable.
“We have all been positioned to add value to the system in diverse ways. While some are to design policy directions, others have been picked to be the drivers of such policies. I likened the two groups to the main teams piloting a ship on a journey.
“While some hold the deck, others ensure the engines below run at their utmost performance. The ultimate goal is to achieve excellence at sea.
“Therefore, our assignment at this retreat is to discuss and have a working template upon which the aspirations of Mr President on
Inland Waterways, through the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, will be achieved”, he said.
Oyebamiji disclosed that the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy and the Permanent Secretary had signed a performance bond with Mr President.
“I have equally signed my performance bond with the Honourable Minister and the
Permanent Secretary. Same way, all of you must sign a performance bond with me as a promise to deliver on your mandates.
“It is important for you to do this with every sense of responsibility as it will determine our working relationship going forward.
“As I said about three months ago in my inaugural address to the management and staff of the Authority, the objectives of niwa are achievable, and with our collective determination, they will be achieved”, he said.
Oyebamiji however re-emphasised the need for teamwork saying, “All of us must be willing to play our roles as expected. So I charged all the General Managers, Deputy General Managers and the Area Managers to brace up for the work ahead.”
In her remarks, Dr (Mrs) Magdalene Ajani, Permanent Secretary and the Accounting Officer of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, stressed the importance and need to embrace Performance Management System (PMS).
The Permanent Secretary said PMS had come to stay in the public service of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as replacing the usual Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER).
She said that the PMS was mooted and developed to help the civil service evaluation system using Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and the initial training took place in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom states were stakeholders were made to understand the concept and its guidelines.
“So because of that initial training, some of you know how to set KPIs, isn’t it? And I am happy that the resources we put in there was not wasted”, She said.
Describing the retreat as a holistic one, Dr Ajani said it became imperative following the Human Resource Department insistence on was need for a little bit more of training again.
This according to her, is to enable a wider number of people understand how KPIs are set. (Ends)