The Minister of Water Resources, Mrs. Sarah Reng Ochekpe has charged the staff of her ministry to be more committed to their job so as to move the water sector forward.
The Minister made the call during her meeting with the management and entire staff of the Ministry in Abuja, tagged “ Town hall meeting”
The Minister said “it is important that each one of you should take his or her assignment very seriously because if you do not work hard then you do not expect to reap the benefit in the work place”
She recalled, “some years ago , the Ministry of Water Resources was merged with the Agriculture but considering the importance of water, the present administration decided to re-create the ministry of water resources , so even if for nothing else, the staff should work hard to show appreciation to the President for given the water sector a sense of identity”.
Speaking on staff welfare, the Minister said that the management would ensure a conducive environment for the staff to enhance performance.
She said “within the limit of the resources available, whatever is your entitlement would be given to you and we expect that you should appreciate the efforts of the management in ensuring that you are comfortable”
On training, the Minister said that she believed in training that would enable officers to acquire knowledge and improve capacity not a training that would be motivated by the monetary aspect of it.
Ochekpe advised that, “if you want to go far in life and if you want to plan high, you must expose yourself to training and so if the opportunities come you should be willing to make use of it”.
The Permanent Secretary, of the Ministry, Baba Umar Faruk said that the management had approved training to all levels of staff, adding that the newly employed professional engineers would be trained and attached to various water and irrigation projects.
He also said the Ministry would partner with the Federal Ministry of Finance to build water village to ease the accommodation challenges of the staff. He urged the staff to cooperate with management for the ministry to achieve its mandate.
Earlier, the Director Human Resources, Mr. Muhammad Badamasuiy said that the essence of the meeting was to create an avenue where the minister and the staff would interact and share ideas on how to move the ministry forward.
