Senator Idris Umar, Transport Minister
John Iwori
As the performance bond President Goodluck Jonathan signed with members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) continues to trickle down, Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, has read the riot act to top officials of the ministry, as well as helmsmen of parastatals under his supervision.
Umar has charged all the top officials and chief executive officers of the agencies under his watch that “the era of sluggishness, making excuses or passing the buck” is over in the ministry”.
The Minister, who was a former member of the National Assembly, said all helmsmen of the ministry must be up and doing. He also charged officials of the ministry to ensure that all matters coming from the agencies to the ministry must be disposed off within two weeks.
The riot act was read at the signing of performance agreement between Umar and the Permanent Secretary/chief executive of parastatals on one hand and between the Permanent Secretary and the Directors on the other hand at the ministry headquarters, Abuja.
Umar recalled that he signed performance agreement with Mr. President based on an itemized list of key deliverables and tangible, measurable outcomes which incorporates specific targets derived from the mandate of each MDA to cover the some broad outcomes.
These include restoration of the Nigerian railway system, repositioning of Nigerian port system in line with global best practices, enhancing maritime safety and security, improving inter-modality of the transport system, enhancing the transport system, enhancing private sector participation in transport sector and provision of policy, regulatory and administrative services.
His words: “The Ministry’s key performance indicators (KPIs) were derived from the individual inputs of departments of the Ministry and the parastatals. We jointly scrutinised, fine-tuned and ultimately agreed on these targets.
“There should be no difficulty in implementing these projects and programmes that will ensure that we deliver on the commitments we made. Mr. President regards the transformation agenda as a social contract with Nigerians, which he is fully committed to actualising.
“Each MDA must therefore demonstrate the same commitment. The era of sluggishness, making excuses, or passing the buck is over. There is no more business as usual. This ceremony is for the Directors of the Ministry and Chief Executive Officers of the Ministry’s Parastatals to sign their own performance agreement with the leadership of the Ministry, by which they will be held accountable for the period January – December, 2012.
“The Performance Agreement is non-negotiable. On the part of the Ministry, I hereby direct that all matters coming from the agencies must be attended to and disposed off within a maximum two weeks from the date of receipt of such matters. We must learn to eliminate unnecessary bottlenecks.
“It is expected that all Directors of the Ministry and CEOs of the Ministry’s Parastatals will carry out the same exercise within their departments and agencies. To underscore the seriousness attached to this, I or my representative will attend and witness the signing ceremonies in the departments of the Ministry and the respective agencies”, he added.
He also charged the MDAs to demonstrate the same level of high commitment with which Mr. President is pursuing the transformation agenda as a social contract with Nigerians.
Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman, who graced the occasion, stated that the targets of the performance agreement signing are service delivery, transparency and accountability.
Managing Director, Nigerian Railway Corporation, Mr. Adeseyi Sijuade, and the Director Maritime Services, Federal Ministry of Transport, Alhaji Nagogo Sulaiman, responded on behalf of the parastatals and Directors respectively, and pledged to work hard to actualise the contents of the agreements signed.