The FDA workforce, on Friday April 5, 2024, carried out its first major general clean-up initiative in several years.
The exercise undertaken by employees, has given the main head edifice of the entity, located in Whein Town, Bernard Farm, a glimmer look.
An employee, who appeared very gladdened while clearing the dirt in the gutter, said, “Old days have passed away and new days have taken over. We are seeing a good beginning and some of us are convinced that this new administration will take us through successfully.”
According to a release from the entity’s communication team, “During the exercise, one could see abandoned piles of dirt in offices being evacuated to the garbage site, the age-old spider’s webs being expelled from all corners, the outdated office papers being cleared from all desks, and certainly an air of civilization could be felt blowing from all angles of the compound, while a mark of dignity and responsibility could be measured from distance.”
The release said, speaking briefly in his office after the close of the exercise, FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab, reiterated his administration’s preparedness to turn a new page and prove detractors wrong.
He termed FDA as a business entity that’s expected to feed the national budget, adding that he and his team have come with the full mindset to effectuate government’s ARREST agenda in a realistic term. According to his dream, a Conservation House is expected to be built on the compound in the near future, which would house all offices of partners, and monies paid for rent would go into FDA coffers for operations purposes.
He noted that, under his administration, FDA will take full charge in every or all forest related matters, and will make decisions that will improve the livelihoods of the people in the communities who are living around the fringes of the forest, so as to abort the temptation of depleting the forest.
He said a nationwide tour is expected soon, where he and his team of experts will go for a site examination exercise, and challenged the employees to change, in line with the ARREST vision and mission, if the entity is to regain its demised image, its autonomous rights, and its international integrity.
In his words, “We are inheriting a big MESS”. He said, in addition to the physical clean-up exercise, which will be a matter of compulsion on a routine basis, an audit of the personal listing and payroll, amongst many other clean-up exercises, is being carried out, so as to place performance and professionalism over and above a system where the real performing people don’t get what they deserve while the non-performing ones get more.
The Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance, Victor Kpaiseh, promised to do the needful administratively without fear or favor.
