Akwa Ibom Govt Announces New Department Supervised By Chief Of Staff

The Akwa Ibom State government has created a new Department of Multilateral and Donor Agencies, under the Office of the Governor.

The new office, to be headed by a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor, will be supervised by the Chief of Staff to the Governor.

The State Commissioner for Information, Sir Charles Udoh, quoting a circular No 2/2020, of the Secretary to the State Government, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, said by this development, all ministerial responsibilities hitherto handled by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies in respect to multilateral and donor agencies, including the Department of International Cooperation, domiciled in the Ministry of Economic Development and Ibom Deep Sea Port, are to be handled by the new department under the Office of the Governor.

Consequently, he said all affected MDAs are required to provide the full complement of information to the Office of the Chief of Staff to the Governor, not later than Friday July 24, 2020.

Quoting the circular further, Sir Udoh mentioned that Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Extra-ministerial Departments are to supervise prompt compliance and to ensure data accuracy, as they will be held accountable for wrong, misleading or incomplete information.

The new department is intended to centrally coordinate the implementation of multilateral and donor agencies’ programmes and projects in Akwa Ibom State.