Imo State Budget 2009: beyond naira and kobo (II)

A people oriented budget is one that places people at the centre of its concerns, and seeks to create a society that is egalitarian and equitable; where social justice is the fulcrum of relations between people and where the resources of society are exploited to enable men and women understand the true meaning of a valued life and to be able to live the lives that they value. Such a life will be characterized by the highest levels of knowledge, health, social services, culture and individual as well as collective wellbeing not just for a thieving few but for all members of society.

 

From the look of things at the moment, the Imo state government’s 2009 budget is not people oriented in both formulation and content. As a result I challenge the Imo House of Assembly to follow the life of this bill as passed and as would be implemented. The House owes us a duty to do this very effectively its oversight functions. These could be easily done through the monitoring of the implementing phase of the bill in order to uncover any defects and to correct misinterpretation and nip corruption and embezzlement of funds.

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Imo State Budget 2009: beyond naira and kobo (I)

While delivering the 2009 at the chambers of the Imo State House of Assembly on the 5th of December 2008 Governor Ikedi Ohakim had said “Mr. Speaker, Honorable members of the House, in the last one year, the Legislature and the executive have worked in harmony to give effect to the New Face of Imo Agenda. The Legislature and the Executive have found common ground in the service of our people. The Legislature and the Executive have demonstrated an unshakable determination to change the face of politics in our state. This has confounded many, especially our detractors. But I am not surprised by your tenacity. After all, the New Face of Imo agenda was crafted together with most of you here. In all we do, we have carried the Assembly along as major stakeholders. That notwithstanding, Mr. Speaker, Honorable members, I must sincerely thank you for the support you have been giving to this Administration since you were inaugurated”.

He continued………….”In the last one year and half, we have executed several socio-economic projects which have led to the achievement of most of the Millennium Development Goals, consistent with our 14-point agenda as well as the President’s 7-point agenda. On 15 November 2008, we launched the Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA), a unique revolution in rural development. The second phase of Clean and Green Initiative was also launched that day. To curb the incidence of kidnapping and other criminal activities in the State, 90 new operational vehicles were added to the fleet of Operation Festival in addition to other security equipment. Notwithstanding the activities of some disgruntled politicians who hired criminals to destabilize the state, we have been able to reduce criminal activities in our State. Statistics show that Imo State has the least crime rate in the Federation”

While I do not intend to dwell on contextual issues on some of the inherent claims on the foregoing extracts, I wish to stress straight away that most of these claims have had no impact whatsoever on the people from which the Governor and his friends in the house claim legitimacy. I wish therefore to remind the governor that every kobo spent need to have propositional value on the life of the people if democratic governance is to have meaning to people.

In development work, key activities should as a routine be followed by significant outcomes and then social impacts. Both significant outcomes and social impacts are so important that they are often referred to as Social Returns of Investment. In 2008 Imo scored a zero on this as it has done since 1999. I am afraid that inherent extant weaknesses in the 2009 budget create a worse scenario.

For ease of understanding, key activities for example may consist of the use of say One million naira to construct may be 10 water schemes. The significant outcomes of such a project may be calculated through community participation to mean a total of about 100,000 households accessing 100 liters of water per day over a period of say 12 months from the scheme; while the social impact, for example; consists of the level of, and spirit of community participation cultivated, the reduction in recorded cases of water borne diseases and may be the total number of healthy children and households resulting there from.

Claims that the Ohakim led government has executed several socio-economic projects which have led to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the past 18 months are wild and lack empirical leverage. We need Governor Ohakim to give us a piecemeal breakdown of the MDG targets so far achieved. Despite the deployment of 90 new operational vehicles to the fleet of operation festival, crime waves still persist. Claims that Imo rates lower in crime than other states is extraneous; the issue should rather be on the relationship of money spent to the outcomes. Does the outcome match the money spent?  We are also awaiting the impact of the highly exulted Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency (IRROMA), the so called revolution in rural development.

It is my prayer that the N134, 702,905,630 budget entitled ‘Budget of Reality’ as proposed for the 2009 fiscal year becomes a budget to somewhere. The budget as presented is higher than the 2008 budget by N43, 792,040,022 or 48%. While I commend the recurrent revenue source, the recurrent expenditure outlay gives me worry. I am rattled that overhead cost constitutes 14% of the total recurrent expenditure while the general administration cost for capital projects takes a huge 35%.

The argument supporting the ratio of capital to recurrent expenditure put at 66:34 in 1999 as against 60.6:39.4 in 1998 is untenable as far as the awards of contracts and motives for doing so remain parochial. It is contradictory for the governor to insist on right-sizing in the public service and belt tightening yet retaining a generous budget for overhead and general administration of capital projects. We need not look far to see that these are potential loopholes for government funds. Belt tightening should traditional start with an overhead that is at most less than 10% and general administration that is less than 25% of their budgetary subheads.

In view of the analysis so far, I am compelled to emphasize that thinking big is great provided that such dreams are tailored in accordance with available but limited resources. Within the past 18months we have been inundated by creative terms and phrases that connote various projects; both intended and actual. However I am afraid that most of these are simply utopian and merely being floated by impulse without strong feasibility studies that could possibly guarantee their eventual sustainability when set up. The N100m equity investment in Air mid-west limited is one of such. It is utterly fraudulent and would definitely not thrive if it eventually takes off. I say so because government at this level need not meddle into aviation as the governor has done. I have no fear whatsoever that the next 12 and 24 months will prove me right on this. Also, the proposed Imo wonder lake resort is another white elephant. It would fail!

In making this grim prognosis, I make bold to insist that despite the number of MOU’s signed, amount of money budgeted or spent and international travels made, that these projects together with those of the multi-lane Imo State Inter-connectivity freeway project (Imo free way), the solar energy and bus assembly plant, the Naze international electronic, electrical and automobile market (INTEEMARK) project, the reclamation of Nworie River, the siting of ceramic, clay and cement industries as well as independent power plant etc would be difficult to achieved due simply to the manner of their conceptualization.

In arriving at these conclusions, I would repeat what I have often said, both in my town hall speeches and in my regular media articles as a sustainable development expert that development budgets at whatever level must be participatory. A budget formulation process where technocrats forecast the development needs and priorities of the people without input from them is mere wishful thing and certainly, often fails. It is simply anachronistic to still keep to those old ways of pursuing development that have led us to nowhere.

Budgets that determine our lives and livelihood in Imo as well as at the federal level should no longer be abandoned with technocrats or the governor and president and their helmsmen. This is the change we must effect in this new era. This is so because there is little doubt that this ugly situation is responsible for the prevailing poverty and under- development prevailing in our communities. Corrupt officials who currently benefit from the current budgetary process may not like the desired change. 

The 2009 Imo budgets from all indices suffer from this persisting affliction. A number of issues in the budget showcase this.

To be continued next week.

 

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Budget Showdown

By Che Oyinatumba

All is now set for an epic battle between the Nigerian people, National Assembly and the Presidency over the non passage of the 2008 budget. Nigeria has been run for the past 4 months without a budget.

The traders in Anambra has fired the first salvo by storming the Anambra State House of Assembly demanding that the legislatures pass the N57.6 billion Appropriation Bill already assented to by Governor Peter Obi.

In a related development, President Yar’Adua has withheld his assent to the 2008 Appropriation Bill, citing that the National Assembly went beyond her powers by padding the budget to N2.7 trillion.

On Tuesday’s sitting after resumption from 3 weeks recess, the Honourables maintained that it’s their constitutional right/duty to increase or reduce the budget if they feel the presentation by the executive will not address the needs of their constituency.

At the Upper Chamber, the senators could not deliberate on this lingering crisis as the Senate president informed the senators that the leadership of the House, is meeting with the executive to resolve the matter.     

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