The Federal Government has unveiled 64 new Technical Assistants recently employed and 60 former ones to take charge of the Millennium Development Goals Conditional Grant Scheme in local government areas across the country ahead of the 2015 deadline for the achievement of the MDGs targets.
It will be recalled that states and local governments under the conditional grants scheme provide matching funds to the Federal Government MDGs Debt Relief grant to step up the execution of MDGs projects in the rural areas where the MDGs indices are low.
Speaking in Abuja at the opening ceremony of a one-week training for the new officers alongside 60 others who were retained, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr. Precious Gbeneol said that apart from 113 local government areas where the MDGs conditional grants scheme was already ongoing, additional 148 local governments have been added for 2012.
This brings the total number of local governments under the MDGs conditional grant scheme to 261 local governments.
Gbeneol reiterated that the 60 officers whose services were retained was based strictly on their on the job performance.
Speaking further on the issue of conditional grants scheme, Gbeneol stated that several state governments had responded by providing their counterpart funding for the 2012 projects, adding that presently a lot of jobs are ongoing in the originally scaled up 113 councils.
Gbeneol also informed the gathering that the Federal Government portion of the funds for the new 148 councils would be concluded before the year ends as it is expected that President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan will approve it shortly.
According to Gbeneol, the training was meant to acquaint the new officers with the details of their schedule of duties in devolving development to the grassroots, adding that the training would provide a platform for the old officers to clear grey areas they had to face whilst in the field.
While acknowledging the critical position the officers occupy in the success of the MDGs programme, Gbeneol warned the new technical assistants as well as the old ones against dereliction of duty, saying that any one found wanting on the job would be relived of his or her duties as there is every need for fast tracking of the country’s attainment of the MDGs.
The SSAP MDGs concluded by stressing: “Your role demands commitment to the job and cooperation with local officials.
“There is little time left before 2015, therefore I urge you to realise that your position is critical to the success of this programme because you are closer to the people at the grass root.
“You speak the language of the people and you must identify with the local government officials, guide and advice them on the priority projects as contained in the needs assessment my office has already conducted.
“But I must warn you that you are not engaged to take over the jobs of the local officials.
“You are not the new local government chairman.”
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