Ahead the first anniversary of the current Board of the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC), the Managing Director/CEO, Bashorun Askia Ogieh, on Saturday performed the ceremonial ground breaking for an ultra-modern four-storey office complex.
Accompanied by the Executive Director, Finance & Administration, Mr. John Obukowho Nani, the Executive Director, Planning, Research & Statistics, Amb. Shedrack Lucky Agediga, and Heads of Departments and Units, the commission’s helmsman expressed delight at the formal take off of the current project essentially designed to address the problem of office accommodation once and for all.
He stated that the project concept, from architectural design to structural engineering and ancillary requirements, was done by the in-house technical team of the commission.
He said this feat has changed the hitherto jaundiced perception of the professional staff for which he is so proud.
Ogieh also gave assurance of a quality finish hopefully within the third quarter of 2021.
It would be recalled that the Managing Director and his executive team had an interactive session with the staff for the purpose of putting them in the picture of the ambitious project, which had received the approval of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
Ogieh, in that meeting had disclosed to staff the start off fund for the project was the proceeds of a dedicated account from absentee staff, as revealed by the biometric data capture.
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He pointed out that in its bid to bring sanity into the system by ensuring that some staff did not perpetually take the commission for granted through job truancy, double job, non-commitment and so forth, the previous Board of which he was a principal member, embraced the biometric data capture for all staff to monitor their dedication to duty and be certain that staff earn and deserve their salaries and sundry allowances.
The fallout of that exercise, he noted, had undoubtedly been fraught with resistance, petitions, bags of complaints, threats, protests, including sponsored ones, etc.
He disclosed that the accrued funds harvested from these infractions by staff over time had been lodged in a dedicated account with WEMA Bank Plc.
He explained that one of the issues that had remained compelling for the Board was the challenge of office space to accommodate a sizeable number of staff, preferably under one corporate vicinity.
This was particularly so, as staff at the Swamp Road office had nicknamed that section “Sambisa Forest,” purportedly implying that they were always forgotten by management.
This and other considerations became the tonic that propelled the Board to put on their thinking cap and sought executive approval to build a befitting office complex within the head office at Warri-Sapele Road to address, once and for all, the persistent office needs confronting the commission.
