By Moses Adeniyi
The Lagos State Government (LASG) has disclosed its move to intensify the degree of monitoring and evaluation exercises for its about 101 parastatals to improve their performance profile for investment attraction.
According to the State Government, the exercise which will be implemented through its Parastatal Monitoring Office (PMO), is imperative to ensure that the Parastatals keep to their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for achievement of their set goals, which is key to attract investors.
It was gathered that reports emanating from the monitoring and evaluation exercises will be forwarded to the State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to keep him abreast of the situations at the Parastatals and Government owned companies.
The Special Adviser to the Governor, Monitoring Office, Mr. Afolabi Ayantayo, on Tuesday during the ongoing Ministerial Briefing at the State Capital Ikeja, to commemorate the second year of the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu led Administration in office, mentioned that the State Government is seeking interested investors to expand the scope of operations of Parastatals across sectors of the State’s economy.
He added that the present Administration is open to partnering with several organisations with investors within and outside the Country.
“We also want to intensify our efforts at getting entrepreneurs to establish business relationship with our Parastatals and government owned companies. This will promote expertise, goal driven activities, effective delivery of services to the people and achieving the 21st Century Economy of this administration,” he said.
He mentioned further that the Office will intensify efforts to ensure that all obsolete laws of the Parastatals and government owned companies under review are completed.
Speaking on other plans of the Office to strengthen performance of Parastatals, he said: “Top on our agenda are training of members of Staff of the Parastatals. It is important to continually expose the Chief Executive Officers and management staff of our Parastatals to the trends in their various areas of operation.
“This is very crucial as the government expects them to contribute meaningfully to the outcome of the T.H.E.M.E.S developmental agenda and other policies and programmes that fall within the mandates of the parastatals.
“These (trainings) will involve quarterly workshops (locally) for high ranking members of Parastatals and Biennial (international) strategic management workshops for CEOs of Parastatals and Agencies so as to expose them to skills and capabilities that are tailored to their specific duties and roles.”
According to him, for proper coordination and in order to fit into the Governor’s dream of a smart city status for Lagos, Parastatals have been classified into sectors of the six development pillars of the T.H.E.M.E.S Agenda based on their mandates and enabling laws.
“It is important to mention here that the classification also took into consideration the internally generated revenue (IGR) related services and non-IGR related services while they were made to understand the importance and necessity of key performance indicators (KPIs) to meet congruent targeted goals within reasonable time frame,” he said.
According to him, the office in the last two years has made remarkable achievements in monitoring and evaluating the performances of Parastatals and government owned companies with a focus on five Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which include the Process, Input, Output and Outcome, Qualitative, Quantitative KPIs and ensuring that the targets of the Parastatals are achieved.
“The Parastatals Monitoring Office has also been involved in facilitation of cooperation between budding entrepreneurs that have business relationship with some Parastatals,” he said.
He disclosed that a total number of 54 laws to reform Parastatals for better performance were reviewed by the Office in collaboration with the State’s Ministry of Justice through the Law Reform Commission Office.
Other areas of concentration of the Office within the period under review include, enhancing visibility of the Parastatals through the quarterly publication of a magazine tagged ‘Lagos Parastatals Quarterly’; visitation to all parastatals in Lagos State with a Bi-Annual monitoring and evaluation exercise held in 2020.
On capacity building for Parastatals and Agencies’ personnel were seminars organised for Chief Executive Officers, Heads of Administration and Human Resources of Parastatals and other key officers at the Parastatals within the period under review.
According to him, good number of seminars/workshops held virtually and physically were directed to acquaint participants with the operational guidelines and the expectations of the administration from Chief Executives of State Parastatals and other ancillary officers.
“The Parastatals Monitoring Office is poised towards facilitating management training for heads and top management officers of Parastatals in Lagos State,” he said.
Also, were the procurement and distribution of post lockdown Covid-19 preventive information, education, communication and sanitary materials to Parastatals and Agencies in the State, assessment of destroyed/stolen assets of Parastatals and Agencies during the ENDSARS protest.
20 Parastatals which were affected in varying degrees, following attacks during the protest include: The Lekki Concession Company; Motor Vehicle Administration Agency; Lagos State Fire Service; Lagos State Public Works Corporation; Lagos State Material Testing Laboratory; Lagos State Metropolitan Area Transport Authority
Lagos Bus Service Limited; Lagos Television; Lagos Internal Revenue Service; and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority.
Others are the Lagos State Agricultural Inputs Supply Authority; Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse; Citizens Mediation Centre, Ibeju-Lekki; Lagos State Resilience Office; Lagos State Printing Corporation; Lagos Drivers Institute, Oko-Afo, Badagry; Lagos State Building Control Agency; Lagos State Physical Planning Authority (Ibeju Lekki/Mainland Office); Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps and the Lagos State Safety Commission