Agagu blames civil servants, others for slow progress
From Niyi Bello, Akure
IT was time for appraisal at the weekend when Governor Olusegun Agagu said that more democracy dividends would have been delivered to the people of Ondo State but for the failure of some political office holders and civil servants to move at the expected pace.
According to him, the situation was due to lack of administrative cohesiveness between policy formulation and implementation as seen in the slowness in the performance of political office holders.
The governor, who made these remarks at a three-day retreat organised by the state government for over 200 political office holders and members of the state civil service, lamented that most of the various plans, documents and programmes designed to move the state forward are yet to be translated into realities.
Declaring open the retreat held at the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), Ondo, Agagu said: "Documentation is more than average, meetings are more than average, still, the people that we are working with are not moving at the pace expected by this administration".
He stated that results were slow because policy directives were either not being followed by those instructed to do so or were not being followed as directed.
The governor observed that there was poor communication among the cabinet members on one hand and between members of the executive council and their permanent secretaries on the other hand. He said the situation was an impediment to policy implementation.
Agagu also lamented that adequate technical inputs required from various ministries into government policy formulation are not forthcoming and the little that are provided "are very weak and will not have the desired impact".
Stressing that responses to directives from higher government's authorities' policy implementation are very slow and often unclear, the governor said: "I can smell suspicion in many quarters and grumbling within the system".
"By now, everybody ought to know how to do things or know what and who to ask. Implementation ought to be smooth and the wheel of progress ought to be faster than this".
He urged those responsible for taking directives to do so diligently and exhibit better understanding of the style of his administration.
"If office holders are working towards the good of the people, one year is enough for them to warm themselves into the hearts of the people of Ondo State", he said.
