ASCON trains 2,375 workers, decries parlous power supply, funding

THE Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) on Wednesday said it trained 2,375 public servants and private workers in its various training programmes in 2014.

The Director-General of ASCON, Mr Ajibade Peters, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday that there was a decline in the college’s training programmes during the year.

He attributed it to the dwindling government revenues and drastic cuts in budgetary allocations for such expenses.

“The College has continued to pursue its mandate of human capacity building through various training courses, workshops, seminars, conferences and round table discussions.

“A total of 2,375 participants attended our training programmes. A breakdown shows that 405 participants attended the regular courses, while 1,503 attended the scheduled ad-hoc programmes.

“Also, 203 participated on the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) training and 264 participated on the tailor-made programmes.

“A comparative analysis of 2014 performance with the last two yeas reveals a decline in the participation on our training programmes.

“This is not unconnected with the dwindling government revenue, late releases and drastic cuts in budgetary allocations, rising level of insecurity and preparation for the upcoming elections,” Peters said.

He noted that the institution partnered with some state governments in conducting promotion examinations for its staff.

“We worked with Bayelsa, Kogi, Ondo, Oyo and Katsina governments in conducting promotion examinations for their staff; we also did the same for the Nigerian Ports Authority,’’ the director-general said.

Peters disclosed that the management had been making efforts to establish zonal offices in all the six geo-political zones of the country.

The director-general said that the major challenges of the college were poor electricity supply and dwindling government subvention.

“Power supply has remained our biggest challenge and this has caused the college to run its standby electricity generators for almost 24 hours daily.

“The cost of running these generators is astronomical and the opportunity cost to the college in terms of resources that could have been used for other pressing demands was not there.

“Also, our quarterly recurrent subvention cannot support our requirements for one month and we have piles of unpaid claims and bills in the cash office,’’ he said.

Peters restated his commitment to take the college to greater heights in 2015. (NAN)