Bauchi State Ministry of Information and Communication is collaborating with the State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) project in the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as part of the renewed efforts to restructure and give the Ministry a sense of direction in carrying out its mandate.
Speaking at the occasion, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Sulaiman Adamu Madara, noted that, in spite of the fact that the development of standard operating procedures would define the roles and duties of each directorate, especially the public information relations officers of the Ministry, it would bring new innovations and best practices for improved information dissemination.
He said that the Ministry is working towards building a positive image of the state, ensuring the effective promotion of government policies and programmes, supervising and coordinating the media industry to properly pass only correct information to the public that does not threaten security, as well as promoting the culture of the state.
He also pointed out that the idea of developing a new scheme of work for the ministry would define responsibilities and assignments for officers and make them adapt favourably to innovative changes and initiatives in the course of work.
The PS therefore urged all staff of the Ministry, such as Directors and information officers, as well as relevant persons, to be guided by the SOP service regulations
The Permanent Secretary then acknowledged the enormous technical support of the USAID-State2State project, which includes advancing the effectiveness of services, saying that development partners have their assigned tasks.
He stressed that the Ministry of Information and Communication will continue to request more capacity development to ensure knowledge gaps are filled across the designated communication objectives.
The overseeing Director of Information, Malam Yakubu Yaro, revealed that participants identified as public information officers are expected to work strenuously to come up with dependable internal documents that would aid the ministry’s operation, a document outlining the specific tasks and schedules of work for departments and units.
The State2State communication specialist who also facilitated the development of the SOPs, Mr. Israel Onu Odiba, stated that some of the objectives are to identify and analyse existing communication processes, procedures, and structures of the state MoI&C and examine the reporting structure for public information officers and their different departments.
Mr Odiba further noted that the idea was essentially to re-draft all-inclusive SOPs for internal communication protocols at the level of the Ministry that can address key communication processes, ensure they align with the overarching communication strategy, promote coherence and synergy in communication efforts, and make sure the state has a developed system for visually flow representation for Ministry-level communication.
Earlier, the State Technical Lead of the project, Mrs Rabi Ekele, hinted that the State2State project supports strengthened governance structures in six states in Nigeria, such as Akwa Ibom, Ebonyi, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi, and Sokoto States, and the project is overseeing service delivery in the health, education, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors while putting more efforts into supporting other critical sectors.
According to Mrs Ekele, the project will continue to identify other key MDAs to improve their capacity to plan and adopt new changes in public service so that the primary functions of government and governance are effectively achieved at all levels.
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