Consultant advocates scrapping position of directors in LG

By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.

Alhaji Mohammed Aliyu, delivering his paper at the occasion.

A Lokoja-based Management Consultant, Alhaji Mohammed Aliyu,
says the creation of the position of Director of Local Governments is “an administrative” calamity capable of spelling doom for the local government system on the long run in the country.

Aliyu,who runs O & M Management Associate, state this at a Training Workshop organized for Directors of Personnel Management(DPM) of the 21 Local Government Areas of Kogi State at NULGE Multi-purpose Hall, Lokoja.

Alhaji Aliyu noted that with the Executive Chairman of council,assisted by the Vice at the helm and the Secretary taking charge of administration and council matters, the creation of the position of Directors of Local Government Administration, ahead of the Director of Personnel Management, was an aberration.

According to consultant,the position of LG directors “only seeks to distort the hierarchical structure of the local government,”adding that
Directors of Personnel Management are supposed to be the defacto Head of Civil Service of the Local Government.

Placing them under the Directors of Local Government, he said, was also an abuse of administrative process.

He further observed that a situation whereby a staff from other Departments,like Works or Agriculture in the Local Government were transferred as Directors of Personnel Management, over and above Personnel Officers who developed their careers in Human Resources, was also an abnormality.

He warned that if not checked,such development would destroy professionalism and disallow those trained in Public Administration or Human Resources management to reach the apex of their career and deny the Local Government of qualitative advice based on professional stand point.

Aliyu,whose paper centres on “Ethics/Attitudinal Change, Office Procedure Processes and Office Routine”,stated that “Ethics literally signify moral principles that control or influence a person’s behavior.”

Citing Akerele Adebayo’s postulation on the subject matter, he said that bureaucratic ethics or ethics in government simply referred to justice, equity, hard work, loyalty, trustfulness and integrity.

He added that in Public Administration, “when we talk about the attitude of Nigerian worker towards work, we mean his or her organized tendency to think, feel and act in certain general way, in response to some aspects of the work environment”.

He enumerated specific ethical attitudes in hierarchical order, such as personal morality, professional ethics, organizational ethics and social ethics.

Aliyu urged the DPM to maximize their employees’ productivity and foster an environment in which positive attitude dominate, and people develop strong work ethics.

Our Correspondent reports that Al
Aliyu listed and discussed the major importance of ethics in government as affirmed by the American Society for Public Administration and enjoined the participants to apply them in the discharge of their duties.

The ethics, according to him, include; to serve the public interest, respect the Constitution and law, demonstrate personal integrity, strive for professional excellence, and promote ethical organization.

The consultant stated that in order to realize the ethical objectives, there was need for office procedures to have firm root so as to create room for ethical standard and consistency in rules application.

He defined office procedures as “the sequence in which certain operations are carried in respect of what is done, who does it and when it is done in the organization.”

According to him,administrative procedures are implemented as a set of rules for making decisions regarding key management functions, adding that the aims and objectives of office procedures are usually written to ensure consistency and fairness.

Aliyu,who listed the various forms of Office Routine,which he recalled had been in existence since the advent of colonialism, reminded those concerned that ethics in government were guided by established procedures and routine activities applicable through set of rules, regulations and laws.

“It is only when they are applied that efficiency and effectiveness in the office can be guaranteed and sustained.” he said.