UBEC Curbs Redundancy, Absenteeism in Zonal, State Offices Through Reestablishing Implementation Structure

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

In curbing the menace of redundancy and absenteeism in its zonal and state offices, the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, has reestablished already existing structures for the implementation of its mandate in line with the renewed hope agenda of the present government.

The commission said it will amount to waste of resources if, for whatever reasons, the departments, units and field offices are not working together in harmony with focus on the set goal of the Commission

UBEC executive secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, stated this on yesterday at the commencement of a two-day meeting of UBEC management with zonal directors, officers in the directorate cadre and state coordinators on strengthening zonal and state offices for improved efficiency and productivity.

He said not fully implementing the structure which has led to shoddy jobs and uncompleted projects jobs as well as inaccurate data have thereby shifted the bulk of the work to the headquarters with sole responsibility been hinged on disbursement of intervention funds to states, set standards and monitors and to ensure judicious usage of funds.

On the other hand, he reiterated that the functions and responsibilities of the zonal and state offices were clearly defined with emphasis on the promotion of cooperation and synergy between the headquarters and the field offices.

“To effectively discharge its mandates and ensure functional relationship with the SUBEBS, LGEAs and UBE stakeholders across the country, it became incumbent on the Commission to establish an implementation structure which will bring it closer to where basic education implementation is taking place.

“The Commission’s Departments will implement activities in the States without the knowledge and participation of the UBEC State Offices. Project and other monitoring activities, which are among the Commission’s major functions also suffered.

“The staff members in the Headquarters were known to engage their colleagues in the field offices to monitor projects and activities for which they were fully paid to perform. This led to the submission of inaccurate reports which resulted in payments being made for shoddy jobs and uncompleted projects.

“The effects of these negative developments did not only rub off on the degree of the efficiency and image of the Commission as a whole, it promoted redundancy and absenteeism among the staff members in the field offices. To say the least, the morale of staff members in the field offices began to ebb” he stated.

Meanwhile, there is a Zonal Office in each of the geo-political zones, a Sub-zonal office in the FCT, and a State Office in each of the remaining States without the Zonal Office.

The functions and responsibilities of the Zonal and State Offices were clearly defined with emphasis on the promotion of cooperation and synergy between the headquarters and the field offices.