First phase of LG officers’ training ends

LAHORE:The first phase of Online Training Programme for the local government officers organised by the Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) Department has concluded.

Officials said 108 newly-inducted officers, including 25 municipal officers finance, 65 municipal officers infrastructure and services and 18 assistant engineers were given opportunity to have orientation as well as in-depth discussion with their senior officers as well as leading experts from the field.

The training module comprised a wide range of topics from subjects like public administration, finance, procurement, taxes, LG laws, municipal services, project management, communication and many others.

The speakers who delivered lectures or expressed their views during the various sessions included Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Muhammad Raja Basharat, Public Accounts Committee Chairman Syed Yawar Abbas Bukhari, Information and Culture Secretary Raja Jahangir Anwar and Akhuwat Chairman Dr Amjad Saqib. The first phase lasted for four weeks from Mondays to Thursdays via video conferencing from the office of LG&CD Department at Civil Secretariat.

While addressing the participants, LG&CD Department Secretary Dr Ahmad Javed Qazi said that Punjab government being highly moved by the important role of local governments in the provision of municipal services to the citizens pays great attention to the newly inducted LG officers who became part of the LG service on merit first time in the history of the department.

It is likely that Chief Minister Sardar Usman Ahmad Buzdar and the chief secretary would also be addressing the officers in the next phase of the Online Training Programme.

“Switching from the traditional mode of training at government training academies to the online video conferencing mode due to corona epidemic has proved to be historic step in many aspects, including the financial perspective, because surprisingly the expenditures incurred on the online training are only Rs 510,000 for 301 officers which is just 1.89 per cent of the total cost i.e. Rs. 26.854 million if the training was held at academies,” said the head of Online Training Programme and LG&CD Department Special Secretary Babar Aman Babar. “We may make online training programme a permanent feature of our trainings in the local government even after corona epidemic,” he said.