By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) Department of Development Control has began more plans that will strengthen building approvals and monitoring, by its officials.
This is coming as the Director, Department of Development Control Mukhtar Galadima, said the era of waiting for months and some times years to obtain building plan approvals will not be allowed.
Speaking at a workshop organized to train the department’s staff on Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in Abuja, Galadima said approval for building plans must not exceed 90 days.
He stated that Nigeria’s Urban and Regional Planning laws stipulate that building plan approvals should be granted to applicants within 90 days.
According to him, failure to grant such approvals within the stipulated three months was tantamount to consent, acceptance and approval hence applicants could even commence development as applied.
He, therefore called on the participants to always adhere to the guidelines of urban planning for better Federal Capital Territory.
The Director, Department of Reform Coordination and Service Improvement and special guest at the one-day workshop, Dr Jumai Ahmadu disclosed that the FCT Administration would commence implementation of performance management system which means that “work will practically be online and staff will be made to account for the roles they play according to their assigned schedules”.
She said : “There will be no more APER, which allows people to just fill it and it is signed. We are going to have digital civil servants”.
Mrs Ahmadu listed certain ingredients for efficient and improved service delivery to include improved staff welfare, as well as healthy living.
“For you to perform maximally, you need working tools and conducive working environment”, she said.
An Assistant Director in charge of Vetting, Department of Development Control, Dr Mohammed Zayyanu who served as a resource person, outlined some of the advantages of the SOP to include elimination of errors, increased productivity and maintenance of chain of order.
