THE ROLE OF MANPOWER TRAINING AND RETRAINING IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Introduction

1.1 Background Of The Study

According to Orewa .A. and Anyanwu .E. (1992) Local government is a system of Local Communities and towns which are organized to maintain law and order provide some limited range of social services and cooperation of the inhabitants in joint endeavours towards the improvement of their condition of living. This implied that local government provides the community with a formal organizational framework which enables them to conduct their affairs effectively and regulates the actions of their members.

According to Akinyele (1988) defined it as a political submission of a law which is constituted by law and has substantial control of local affairs. This connotes that they are established for the improvement of the standard living of the local dwellers.

According to Federal Republic of Nigeria Guidelines for Local Government Reforms (1976) defined it as Local Councils as government exercise through representative Council established by law to exercise specific powers within defined areas.

Local Government system constitute the third tier of governments in direct contact with the grassroots. By this very fact, therefore, they are expected to play a major role in the development and transformation of the rural or local communities. More especially, they have to find solutions consistently to the pyramids of socio-economic problems facing the administration of local government of Orlu Local Government Area. These problems include: Poor funding, lack of qualified staff, material inadequacies, poor manpower disposition reflected staffing, placement, ineffective or greedy leadership and lack of motivation, use or poor training and re-training of staff, use of wrong personnel, etc. The fact has been widely acknowledged that local government is still a far cry from their mission.

Today, it is recognized that the reason why most of the local government cannot completely make use of both human and materials (non human) resources available to them. The manpower training is a critical factor in economic development of local government system. The local government which is unable to employ skills and knowledge of its manpower and utilize them effectively will not develop. The essence of any manpower training is to enhance the welfare of workers by maximizing their skills and the quality and quantity of their employment opportunity and in so doing it will add to the country’s economic strength.

According to Nwankwo (1993) defined manpower as “the process by which an organization ensure that it has the right number of people and the kind of people, at the right places, at the right time. Doing things for which they are economically most useful”.

Thus, all manpower training are aimed at human resources development and utilization. The quality of manpower is the most important factor that will determine whether an organization will be successful and achieved its stated objectives.

Manpower training is usually essential for new local government members as well as seasoned chairman, councilors, personnel, treasury, etc. ……… requires skills and knowledge to carry out administrative work. Employees at all levels in the local government such as the clerk, secretary, accountant, etc. will require some training and re-training at one or more points in time of their career. When these manpower’s are trained, it will help to enhance productivity in Orlu Local Government.

However, since efficient and effective manpower is most important to the attainment of grass root objectives, it is in recognition of the fact that this research is carried out with the aim to evaluate the role of manpower training and re-training in Orlu Local Government.

Development And Structure Of Orlu Local Government Area:

The Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State was created under the Eastern Region Legal Notice No 218 of 1995. but it was abolished because of many military interventions.

In 1982, Governor Sam Mbakwe, created new Local Government Area in Imo State during the second republic and Orlu Urban was created this did not last long as the military struck again in 1984, and returning all governments to their original state before the civilian regime.

By 1989, following the adjustment made by decree 15 of 1989, Orlu Local Government was split into two, Ihioma and Orlu Local Government Area.

But another major Local Government review headed by Chief Author Mbanefo was carried out during the regime of General Ibrahim Babaginda and on December 5th, 1986, the Federal Government gave Orlu urban, the original Orlu people a local government area which comprises the following villages Umuowa, Umuzike, Owerri-Ebeiri, Mgbee, Umuna.

The Orlu Local Government has about fifteen (15) wards, each ward elects a council that will be representing them in the local government. They also have a state constituency and senatorial district with about five hundred and nine (509) staff that is:

• Administration 222
• Finance 74
• Health/Social Welfare 100
• Planning Unit 14
• Agric Department 29
• Work/Transport 70

Moreso, it has about 58 grades and 46 CSO/NGOS operating within the local government add to rapid socio-economic and cultural development of the local government.

It has been able to accomplish developmental projects like grading of roads, construction of culverts, establishment of markets, health centers, building of schools (primary and secondary), skill acquisition center and agricultural farms using the earlier mentioned department and their staffers in line with fourth schedule of the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In general overview of Orlu Local Government Area has a land mass of 24.88 sq km with 127.213 population according to 2006 national census figure shortlisted in the paper.

1.2 Statement Of Problem

The major problems confronting Orlu Local Government is how to determine the best way to encourage training and re-training of high level of manpower required for the local government system. This has been a problem because no local government has ever attained high level of economic growth and re-training without amply supply of qualified manpower. There is well known fact that this local government system continue to lack behind in the re-training, despite difficult to see on the ground any evidence of services been rendered by them with the huge revenue they were supposed to have received from the Federal account and revenue generated from taxes, rates, grants and fines etc.

The inefficiency and low productivity that characterize manpower training and re-training, especially in Orlu Local Government is attributed to the shortage of qualified and skill manpower.

1.3 Objectives Of Study

The objective of this study is to know the role of manpower training and re-training in Orlu Local Government Area. The essence of this research work is to determine the expected benefits for manpower training and re-training in the organization.

The objectives of manpower training include:

1. To know human and material resources should be effectively managed in order to achieve the goals of local government.
2. To know how use of wrong Personnel Officer(s) affects effective training and re-training in the local government system.
3. To find out if organization on the job training or off the job training will be applicable to staff in order to see if it can bring efficiency and effectiveness.
4. To know the motivation and leadership style that will help to improve productivity.
5. 5. When staff in local government is not properly placed in the local government, it affects their performance badly.
6. We observed that manpower training and re-training is a veritable tool for improving the relationship within the outside the local government system in the sense that, the staff are taught how to conduct themselves properly.
7. We observed that funding contributed to the lack of manpower training in local government system in the sense that Orlu Local Government Area find it difficult to generate enough revenue to embark on training programme, especially for their staff.

1.4 Scope And Limitation Of Study

The scope of this research work will cover the need for training and selection of qualified or appropriate trainees and trainers as well as the training procedure, content and allocation of adequate time for training and re-training programme. The research was carried out under certain constraints in an attempt to make the study a meaningful one.

Limitation Of The Study

It is necessary to highlight some of the problems the researcher encountered in the course of carrying out the research they include:

Inadequate Fund:

This made the project a problematic one hence the researcher is still a student. Because of the collection of data for the project and high cost of transportation in the country today. I was unable to provid…