President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf assumed the gavel of state believing in small, efficient government administration for whiz recovery - over bloated, languid government. She has been adhering to just this theorem since - one casualty of the theorem being the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD).

But observers say the drawbacks of the theorem is coming home to roost as indicated by vanishing county development funds and slow development and growth impact on Liberia outside Monrovia despite successive encouraging annual budgetary performance ratings.

"So the question is should the Sirleaf Administration resort to structural relief for rapid development or cling on to structural adjustment and experience continued administrative shortfalls?" is the question observers are asking.

The Analyst has been looking at just this question.

Observers say the problem the County Development Support Secretariat (CDSS) is having with county development officials' accountability is partly the result of the failure of Sirleaf Administration's structural or administrative adjustment policy.

Structural Relief or Administrative Shortfalls

The structural or administrative adjustment policy, which prefers small government administration and bureaucracy over what they call working-size administration, they contend, did not only rob the administration of a specialized agency in charge of rural development and reconstruction, but that it also routs Liberia's civil engineers and dispersed them to foreign missions or NGOs or even to greener pastures in neighboring countries.

Now, they claim, the austerity measure that was supposed to reduce expenditure and improve development performance has instead increased budgetary spending and reduced performance with millions of development dollars going to line the pockets of corrupt county officials and their central government godfathers or mentors in Monrovia . The current problem of accountability, they say, showed more than a loss of funds.

"It shows that no one is actually in control of the nation's development outside Monrovia since those who are supposed to be in charge are as confused about what they are supposed to do as the political bosses to whom they are supposed to report," said one observer who wished to remain anonymous .

Analysts agree, noting that because the problem is a drawback of government's austerity measure, it is likely to remain, even in the face of the punitive measure CDSS program manager, Michael George, is proposing.

The only workable solution to the problem of rural development and county active participation, they say, is for the administration to consider structural relief consisting of the reactivation of the Ministry of Rural Development and Urban Reconstruction (MRDUR).

The MRDUR was one line ministry dropped out of the agencies of government the Sirleaf Administration reactivated to begin the colossal work of reconstructing Liberia 's devastated infrastructure, triggering the decongestion of the capital and other large cities through incentive-induced urban-to-rural migration, and providing the enabling economic environment for the poverty reduction.

The dropping of the MRDUR came as the result of contention amongst economic and governance experts that it was redundant because most of its responsibilities were already being undertaken by the Ministry of Public Works, which could do even better if assisted by county development officials and county project management committees.

But a Michael George caveat to county officials and members of Project Management Committee (PMC) regarding the submission of accurate monthly and project activity reports on the County Development Fund or the risking of punishment, observers say, lets the cat out of the bag regarding the myth that the MRDUR was redundant.

A release issued last week by CDSS complained about the appalling and disappointing situation of 'managers of the County Development Fund (CDF) continuously delaying the submission of regular monthly report, with varying excuses, which are in total contravention of the County Development Fund guidelines'.

The release quoted Program Manager Michael George as saying that the managers and officials were delaying and filing in excuses even though they had only recently being beneficiaries of several capacity building workshop, stakeholder review, submission of project monitoring reports, and even issuance of follow up reminders on measures to enhance the effective implementation of the County Development Fund.

If the county officials and project managers seem to lack the zeal and technical know-how about managing development programs under the political glare of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then, according to observers, the CDSS itself is out of solutions, being only a coordinator of the Internal Affairs Ministry.

They say the CDSS hit the nail of the administration's windedness on the head when it noted in its release that after two and half years of implementation culminating into the end of the trial and error period, lessons learned thus far suggest that it has becomes necessary to use technical means to undermine moral and institutional weakness in the management of the County Development Fund (CDF).

Many observers and analysts agree therefore that neither the administration, the Internal Ministry, nor its liaison arm, the CDSS, can actually 'undermine moral and institutional weakness through technical means' because it is not a technical but structural problem that lies with the central government.

They then noted that the administration's new dilemma was to provide structure relief by reactivating the Ministry of Rural Development and Urban Reconstruction with fresh new mandate and having to deal with moderately increased budgetary expenditure, or continue with the current austere structural adjustment and small government and face fiscal leaks, administrative shortfalls, and bickering about faulty or delayed reporting with no one in charge.

MRDUR reactivation: the benefits

Compared to fiscal leaks and poor county development fund performance, analysts say, the benefits of reviving the MRDUR would be enormous and relieving, not restraining and fiscally demanding as the government fears. They equated the reactivation of the MRDUR, and setting it to work, to completing the technical lineup of the Sirleaf Administration without which, they say, it would be difficult to handle the backlog of Liberia 's development needs.

This is because, they say, a line ministry needed to be in charge of rural development in order to give it a cabinet-level attention in the nation's reconstruction agenda. With rural development discussed at cabinet level and implemented at ministerial level, according to one community development expert, government's urban-to-rural migration program and the poverty reduction strategy (PRS) would take on new lives of their own and obtain workable directions.

Once the MRDUR was reactivated and the PRS and urban-to-rural migration became integral parts of its mandate, the expert who also preferred not to be named said, the Bureau of Rural Development and the Micro Enterprise Development budget allocated the Ministry of Public Works could be reverted to the new ministry. He said the issue of urban decongestion and rural development cannot be discussed in the absence of thoughts of extending urban life to parts of Liberia condemned to rural life and the pangs of poverty for more than 162 years.

" Liberia needs a second city like Ghana or Nigeria . You can't talk about reducing poverty unless you also talk about attracting Liberians to rural Liberia by providing social services, technology, and tertiary education programs," he said.

He said with the population divided between the rural poor and urban elites, there was no question that the nation was in for a long drawn-out struggle for rights and residency. In his view as long as counties like Gbarpolu, Grand Kru, and River Gee, amongst others, lack access roads, to say noting about experienced county-based development experts or technocrats, such offhanded development appropriations as county development fund (CDF) will continue to make little or no impact on the nation's reconstruction efforts.

"In fact they will continue to be drains on the economy," he said.

He said part of the reasons the Ministry of Internal Affairs was not a suitable substitute for the MRDUR was that it was a political institution with bloated bureaucracy and limited capacities at the county level.

"Coupled with the lack of genuine interest in rural development at all levels, most of the ministry's projects are politically driven," he claimed.

In his view, the PRS was failing because no one seems in control, arguing that were the MRDUR to be reactivated, it would take charge of the county development fund (CDF), the poverty reduction strategy (PRS), water and sanitation (WATSAN), micro enterprise development (MED), rural development training (RDT), and community counseling (in collaboration with Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender and Development).

Besides, he said, all development superintendents and project planners would be seconded to the reactivated MRDUR for efficiency and proficiency. The University of Liberia and other colleges, he said, would coordinate with the MRDUR to provide field training for undergraduate students taking development courses.

"Finally, the MRD will liaise with the ministries of Internal Affairs, Agriculture, Gender and Development, and Education, etc., in furthering community development," the expert said.

Anxiety

He said while it was the prerogative of the Sirleaf Administration to choose between structural relief for rapid development or cling on to structural adjustment and experience continued administrative shortfalls, the people of Liberia were becoming weary of lip-service and were anxiously waiting for reform - even reform of reforms already instituted but that do not seem to be working as envisioned.