Abia governor chief Theodore Orji has expressed dissatisfaction with the shoddy performance of engineers of the state ministry of works and has threatened to sack them except they turn a new leaf.
The governor handed down the warning during an unscheduled meeting he held with the management team of the ministry of works at the government house Umuahia.
He noted with dismay that the engineers have performed very poorly and described their performance as a total disaster.
Chief Orji observed with regret that rather than do the job for which they are paid, the engineers seldom supervise road contracts and are only interested in monetary gains from contractors and attributed all the poor quality jobs in the state to the handiwork of the engineers.
According to him, padding and inflation of contract bills by the engineers have become the order of the day while contract papers are not handled with dispatch and asserted that the old order must stop.
He also observed with dismay that estimates for jobs from the engineers of the ministry are higher than that from the contractors.
To that end, the governor charged the engineers to sit up or be kicked out to enable fresh hands perform and warned that henceforth, he will start dealing with civil servants who fail to do their duty. The Abia state chief executive expressed his displeasure with civil servants who sabotage the effort of the government and stated his readiness to start a revolution in the service.
He directed the commissioner for works and the permanent secretary of the ministry to monitor closely the activities of the engineers and report those who constitute a cog in the wheel of progress or face being sacked.
The governor who said that the commissioner has a mission to sanitize the ministry pointed out that he has set his dragnet to fish out offenders and warned that hard times await professionals who fail to keep their hands clean and do their job diligently.
October 28, 2023
