Day 1 started with a formal visit to the Chief of Staff, Personal Office of the Governor. On our way to the office, we passed a long row of photographs of past Governors. This reminded us of a long history of military government where the Governors of Ondo came from the Armed Forces. A comment was made about how they ruined the country. Speeches were made all round and it is interesting that an introduction by Cyril (of SITDEC) directly stated our lack of interest in their approaches initially. Actually the word “cold” was used.
This continued with a meeting at SITDEC, chaired by Cyril, where we met key officials from a few Ministries including Finance, Accountant General, Health, Local Govt, Attorney General, Land and some others I could not remember.
There was appreciation that SAINS came with a heavy duty team of all the top Manager. This was in contrast to the concern expressed in SAINS that the top mgmt is travelling in one plane.
There seems to be a patriotic fervour in the discussion that bodes well as to their commit- ment. There is an earnest approach as if to dispel the common image of corruption. They also expressed a desire to move ahead rather than being mired in their current state of development. This is in contrast to other countries (including West Malaysia) where there is bored disinterest, playing of political games, points scoring and without a desire to achieve something positive.
Discussions centred on plans for the next 2 days in interviewing key Ministries and determining priorities. They are very ambitious in setting a target of 12 months for some applications to go live. Our challenge is to meet that target and yet come up with proposals that are meaningful and have impact to the citizens.
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