BusinessDay... the voice of business: Don’t expect ‘with immediate effect’ approach to governance -FG

Don’t expect ‘with immediate effect’ approach to governance -FG
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NSE AKPAN on 27 March, 2008 12:00:00
 
Shamsuddeen Usman, minister of finance, said the current delay in taking actions
by the government is simply the price that Nigerians have to pay to get lasting
solutions to various problems facing the country.
Usman, who delivered the post-annual general meeting lecture of the Nigerian
Economic Summit Group (NESG), said that the government has no plan for a quick
fix and “immediate-effect” approach to handling issues.
He stated that unfolding events in the power sector are enough evidence that
the immediate-effect mentality adopted by the past administration yielded little
or no result but only provided opportunities for people to waste government
resources and illegally enrich themselves.
“Almost every time you rush to do things, you create chances for people to
milk the system and to make easy money. Take the power probe, for instance. What
we heard is that due process mechanism was simply set aside. We are creating a
robust framework for budget monitoring, we intend to measure how well the budget
is implemented and not merely looking at the quantum of funds released but by
seeing the physical extent of work.”
According to him, the present administration inherited a very weak and shaky
foundation despite the reforms that were put in place to ensure that things are
properly done. Most of the projects executed were not only ill conceived but
also without any physical plan on implementation before the contracts were
awarded, he said.
“We took over a house whose foundation was very weak. Do we continue to add
more floors to this weak foundation or pause to see whether the foundation can
take more floors? It seems wherever we touched, it’s this same mess that we
found.
“For instance, a contract of $8.5 billion was long awarded to a company to
construct a railway from Lagos to Kano. But the design for the railway is just
being done. It is the company that got the contract that commissioned a firm to
do the design. Do you think the railway would be designed to cost less than the
contract sum”? he queried.
“Take the Mambila power project for instance, the contract was signed, huge
sums released but if you go to Mambila nobody knows where the actual site of the
project is.”
“We have just renegotiated the $2.5 billion credit with the Chinese and now
soon after, there is a stampede to spend the money. But we are saying no! For
each project, show us a detailed project design, costing and other
documentation.”
On reforms in the ministries, Usman said, “the finance ministry was one of
the six ministries chosen for the pilot project on reforms. With what I saw on
ground, God forbid that I was taken to another ministry where there is no reform
because there is simply no evidence of reform.”
He said the government is willing to pay a little price of being accused of
inactivity so long as there would be visible results eventually.
Though the “mess” on ground would take time to clear, he said the
government would however not wait to completely clear it before starting
something.
“I must mention that while the current emphasis on due process and
institutionalisation of reforms may give the impression of delayed visible
results, such approach will eventually lead to a legal and regulatory framework
in support of economic growth, wealth creation and poverty reduction,” he
said.
He maintained that the direction of the current administration is to sustain
macroeconomic stability, deepen structural economic reforms through putting in
place appropriate sectoral policy measures that would enhance increased
participation of private sector in economic management, especially in the area
of provision of infrastructure.
According to Usman, the country requires massive investment in infrastructure
at various levels (estimate of $50 billion) and that the government alone cannot
achieve it in the short term.
He implored the private sector to collaborate with government under the public
private sector partnership (PPP) to provide the huge resources needed to fund
the projects on ground to meet with developmental plans.