Amaechi said the decision was to help ameliorate the challenges faced by the staff in the discharge of their civic duties.
The Minister stated this at an
interactive session with staff and management of the ministry, Monday.
Amaechi said, “Knowing the
background I come from, I felt that you people are spending more money having
to transport yourselves to work and I’m surprised that they are collecting
money from you for those buses.”
Directing the Permanent Secretary to
ensure the bus services are free of charge henceforth, he added, “We’ll
increase the number of staff buses, fuel and maintain them ourselves.”
Amaechi further assured that to
improve on service delivery, training and retraining of staff personnel will be
given top priority.
“We would devise a means of
training and retraining our staff, be it locally or internationally; and it
will be according to our resources,” he said.
Amaechi also directed the ministry’s
Permanent Secretary to liaise with authorities of NYSC to post some doctors to
the Ministry of Transportation in view of establishing a medical center for
staff of the ministry.
“Let us get the NYSC to post to
the ministry at least two doctors, so we can ascertain the cost of establishing
a clinic for our staff. This will enable those who fall ill to get free
treatment,” he said.
The Minister also noted that
henceforth, provision of laptops for Engineers will be included in the
ministry’s budget.
In her remarks, Minister for State, Transport, Sen. Gbemisola Saraki assured workers of smooth working relationship, stating that she would work together with Amaechi to improve on staff welfare.
“Whatever the Minister (Amaechi) had been doing I will follow suit, I will always be behind him and I will do my best to always ensure that we do what will promote staff welfare,” she said.
Earlier, Permanent Secretary, Ministry
of Transportation, Sabiu Zakari said the essence of the interactive session was
to have a better understanding with the Ministers.
He enjoined the staff to provide support to the Ministers to achieve the vision of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
According to him, “the purpose of
this interactive session is to have a better understanding with the Ministers.
It is an opportunity for us to air our views and understand what they
(Ministers) want us to do in this second term of Mr. President. It is our hope
that as we gave our support to the Hon. Minister of Transportation during the
first tenure, we’ll give even more this second term.”