Meanwhile, the Chief Fire Officer, Nazir Ahmed Alie Kamanda-Bongay denied the charge arguing that no member of the public has ever brought such a complaint to his attention. He however assured the Minister that he will put mechanisms in place to monitor the situation. The Minister’s visit was part of his familiarization tour of departments and agencies under his Ministry’s supervision.
The Minister encouraged the fire fighters to continue with their sensitization on fire prevention and to encourage private businesses to import fire lamps and fire extinguishers. He noted that once these essentials are readily available in the market, the necessary laws could be enforced to make institutions and the public to install them in their premises.
Fire Force, he said plays a vital role in saving lives and properties in the country. He therefore encouraged the force to continue the good work and appealed to them to maintain discipline and high standards in their operations.
In another development, the Minister was at the Immigration department on Tuesday, 19th April 2016 where he addressed the staff. Minister Conteh praised the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) for what he said was his “remarkable performance” in transforming the department.
He expressed satisfaction about the on-going decentralisation process of the department. Decentralisation of functions Minister Paolo Conteh maintained is a good panacea to moving development and ensuring effectiveness in governance. The Minister made reference to the decentralisation of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) at regional and district levels with strategic directions as the main reason for its ability to defeat the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
The Minister therefore called on the top management of the department to strictly monitor their subordinates to ensure they do not indulge in “collecting brown envelopes or bribes” as a motivation to doing the work they are employed to do. He however mentioned that a tip after job done within the stipulated time is no offence, but frowned at deliberate delays to force extra payments from members of the public. He encouraged the top management to prevail on their subordinates to improve on customer care, describing it as an essential element in service delivery.
At the National Registration Secretariat, the Minister and delegation inspected facilities and working equipment meant to undertake the National Civil Registration exercise expected to kick-off in September. He urged the Chief Registration Officer to ensure that the data processing equipment and other gadgets are properly taken care of and secured. The Chief Registrar Mr. Foday Kamara informed the Minister and deputy that the greatest challenge with the pending civil registration is the ‘kits’ which are running out of use since 2012 when they were used by the National Electoral Commission. The Minister assured managements of the three agencies visited of engaging the Finance Minister to discuss on the challenges facing them in order to find ways of ameliorating them.