Onu urges FMST agencies to expedite action on 2018 staff promotion

Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology (FMST) on Friday called on agencies under the ministry that had not conducted their 2018 staff promotions to do so immediately.

Onu made the call in Abuja when he held a meeting with Permanent Secretaries, Directors and Directors-General of agencies under the supervision of the ministry.

The minister directed that the procedures, rules and regulations guiding promotions should be strictly adhered to in the conduct of the exercise.

He urged them to expedite action on relevant staff welfares and other pending staff cases.

Onu also urged the directors-general to submit nominal roll of staff of their agencies to the office of the permanent secretary for attention of their supervising directors within the first quarter of every year.

He advised them to always put their requests for travel in good enough time in order to obtain approval before they embarked on such journeys.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on all directors-general to ensure that payments are made only after execution of constituency projects under their agencies.

“Where the projects are in phases, every effort must be made to ensure that the work done is evaluated and certified by qualified engineer before payment.

“This has become very necessary as NGOs have always been taking advantage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to request for the level of execution of these constituency projects,“ he said.

Onu also told them that the 2018 National Council on Science and Technology (NCST), would hold in Lafia, Nasarawa State, from Oct. 22 to 26.

He said that the theme of the conference would be “Enhancing Nigeria’s Competitiveness in all Sectors of the Economy through Effective Development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) “.

He called on professionals from other ministries and experts from the private sector to participate in the conference.

“I call on you to participate at both the proposed NCST technical and council meetings. I also request for high quality memoranda to be submitted to enhance value added deliberations.

“The role played by the agencies like NBTI, NASRDA and NOTAP in inviting some stakeholders to participate at last year’s edition was commendable and I urge all others to also do the same this year.“

Earlier, Mr Bitrus Bako, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, advised the D-Gs to strive to embrace efficiency in the conduct of government business.

Bako called on all agencies to put in motion all modalities for speedy implementation at the shortest possible notice.

He however pointed out that implementation of the 2018 capital appropriation was yet to commence.

“I am glad to note that some agencies have set in motion the modalities for speedy implementations.

“Let me draw the attention of the directors-general to the extant rule and regulations where channels of communication between ministries and agencies under their purview have been clearly spelt out.

“In this regards, directors-deneral should endeavor to obtain and make use of the Public Service Rules, Regulations and Guides for guidance and compliance.