Agitation by Oil Communities Won’t Dampen Our Spirit, Says Delta Commission

Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

The Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) yesterday said frequent agitation by stakeholders in the oil-bearing communities would not dampen its spirit to deliver its mandates, but rather spur its team into productive action.

The Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Chief Askia Ogieh said this after inspecting key projects across nine local government areas in the state as part of activities to mark his second anniversary in office

At a session with journalists, Ogieh said his administration had been able to respond to agitations by host communities through execution of programmes and projects that impact the lives of the people of these areas.

Despite the COVID-19 disruption in 2020, according to him, DESOPADEC
in the last two years has been able to make significant visible and intangible achievements through staff motivation and adherence to transparent and accountable leadership.

He added that human capital development was prioritised in line with the ‘Greater Delta’ agenda of the Okowa administration.

Ogieh explained that through the operation of the biometric system, the intervention agency was able save more than N380 million under his watch.

“On coming on board, we upgraded our personnel/payroll system and audit. To plug all loopholes of human factors and infractions, we migrated to an updated personnel payroll system technology.

“This has led to a rise in the level of transparency as it has largely eliminated human errors and infractions. Our current system enables the generation of pay slips and same transmitted to the e-mail boxes of our staff.

“I can report that savings from the Biometrics System, over N380 million have been deployed into the DESOPADEC Tower we are building in Warri currently.

“Let me add that our staff files have been saved in our cloud system, the Staff Management Database for Administration, to checkmate falsification of age and tampering.

“As part of the mandate given to us, we have brought DESOPADEC operations into the pigeonhole of the Delta State Public Service. Thus, we have changed the narrative of stagnation of staff to a steady, assured and seamless promotion of deserving ones on an annual basis”, Ogieh said, adding that this has been a morale-booster for the staff.