Ben Etaghene
28 November 2008
Delta State Government in its wisdom, perhaps in line with the Federal Government established Vision 2020 to facilitate rapid development in accordance with its Seven-Point Agenda. Many observers have envisioned it a veritable instrument of economic transformation.
This was the concise interpretation given by Hon. Ejaife Odebala, a commissioner in the projects monitoring directorate recently when he addressed members of the sub-committee for physical infrastructure of the Vision 2020. For him it was an opportunity to make a case for the importance and the relevance of the directorate and the need to inculcate it into the state's everyday planning in compliance with the new spirit in the state's approach to governance.
In his words: "A good project monitoring system should be put in place for checks and balances, and as on effective instrument against problems and difficulties affecting projects execution. Vision 2020 as planned shall involve series of project executions."
Therefore, this innovative style of projects executions which are carried out to specification should be holistically encouraged and adopted as an article. As Hon. Odebala stated: "We are not oblivious of the fact that every ministry awarding contracts, has its team of professionals who inspect contracts executions in the file. However, the need arises for the existence of an outside (external) monitoring crew divorced from the internal team for a neutral view and assessment".
Members of the sub-committee who affirmed that they were not hearing that suggestion for first time, agreed with the ideals of Hon. Odebala but referred him to the sub-committee responsible for that assignment -Strategic Framework and Economic Direction. In fact, the writer of this article who sat on the physical infrastructure subcommittee had earlier raised the issue because the facts are obvious: The more one rummages over the Vision 2020 programme, the more the reality for external supervision becomes "a kind of guarantee for value for money".
In fairness, if the Vision 2020 initiative is carefully examined and recommendation thereof are to be conscientiously implemented, then the next 12 years shall witness an unprecedented construction activities - a revolutionary transformation era to compete with most advanced countries of the world. For example, to express this in real picture, let us use the Physical Infrastructure subcommittee as an illustration. It is subdivided into four syndicates: works, transport, housing and water. During a preliminary report, it revealed the probability for new ideas resulting in multifarious contract awards on all areas of the subtitle above.
The list of subcommittees /thematic work groups comprise governance, strategic framework and economic direction, energy, physical infrastructure (including housing), human infrastructure, agricultural and natural resources, science and technology.
Others are finance and fiscal management, lands, mobilisation and regional planning; environment and waste management, culture, tourism and entertainment and cross - cutting issues.
This is how wide the range is. And each and everyone of them has sub-committees. It envisages a whole new world. This inevitably calls for a whole lot to revolutionise the state's potential and human resource. These are defined as government's short and medium range growth plan mapped along the three- point agenda of the state government. These include peace and security, human capital development and infrastructural development.
The Vision 2020 plan is aimed at the growth of the four million peoples of the state who occupy a total area of 18,000 square kilometers, about one third of this is swampy and the others full of water. The state has abundant oil and natural gas resources. The Department of Petroleum Resources records showed that before the Niger Delta crisis, oil wells in Delta State produced about 25 percent of Nigeria's crude oil output between 1999 and 2004.
The State is equally well-endowed with many other categories of national resources. Those include clay, silica, lignite and kaolin. It is also backed with adequate arable forest and aquatic resources. There are so many natural harbours in Delta State. But those that can be functional when developed are Warri, Sapele, Koko and Burutu ports. There are other port facilities located in Oghara and Delta Steel Complex, Ovwian - Aladja.
The foregoing is a synopsis of the economic potentials of Delta State that can be taken advantage of anytime to catapult the state into meaningful growth and development. Therefore, for Delta State Vision 2020 to be executed to the benefit of its citizens and in-view of the various committees and their envisaged recommendations, it will only be fair and economical to expect myriads of contracts awards.
And for the state government to derive optimum advantage socially and economically calls for stringent overseeing of how every kobo put in at the end of the day is expended. Therefore, those who call for the establishment of a permanent and specific monitoring organ of government projects are making those calls out of the desire for efficiency, accountability and transparency.
The engagement of consultants to supervise government projects is a mere extension of bureaucracy at a time when there are known complaints about wastes. The consultancy fees are just too bogus. For instance, they charge 20 per cent of contract fees. In a year therefore, the state government can spend up to N2-3 billion on consultancy charges when in excess the directorate of projects monitoring will consume less than 15 per cent of that per annum.
There is every reason to ask why we often have a mediocre execution of implementation of government projects after the annual lofty budgetary proposals. A hypothesis can be posited that shoddy or substandard works came about because awarding ministries have for too long been allowed to be judges and prosecutors in their own courts. Perhaps the intervention of an external monitoring team, beyond the importance, the enhancement of performance, can serve as an agent of checks and balances on contracts awarding ministries.
This will make it possible for projects to be executed as planned by government. This will change the landscape, raise appreciation level of the people and government presence will be felt more. These are some of the expectations the policy adoption of an external monitoring body will bring into governance.
The state government has, nonetheless put the directorate of project monitoring in place. What is required at the moment is an enhancement of the directorate to transcend its present operational hiccups of lack of vehicles, personnel, et al. One is reaching this conclusion because the Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, in his 2007 budget speech to the Delta State House of Assembly referred to this upgrade.
It can also be recalled that the decision of the Ministry of Economic Planning and Chairman of Delta State Vision 2020 Steering Committee, Mr. Bernard Okumagba, to cap strategic framework and economic direction to deal with projects monitoring underscores the importance and recognition being accorded this innovative area of government activities. It should be recognised as a veritable arm of government for healthy contracts implementation and not a rival, a gad fly or an obstacle.
Mr. Etaghene, the Editorial Director of The Bulletin, writes from Sapele, Delta State.
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