REVIEWING INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT PLANS AND VISIONS AS A STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: IMPERATIVE TO WEAKNESSES OF MONITORING DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE ELECTION IN NIGERIA Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but its something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles says Abbie Hoffman The process of electing representatives of the people (electorate) into public offices is one that has become all the more challenging in many states of the world, especially in the developing countries like Nigeria. The aftermath of periodic election in these countries are characterised with election tribunal verdicts, nullifying and re-conducting election, investigating electoral malpractices and various other election misconducts. This is emphasizing the fact that electoral perfection has not been reached, and as such, all stakeholders in the state are to mobilize resources - human and material - in pursuit of a viable and reliable electoral process and representative election results. Theoretically, development plans of any sort involve deliberate efforts on the part of government to speed up the process of social and economic development of a country. In some countries, such as the former Soviet Union with a socialist ideology, the development plan efforts were usually found to be rewarding, as the government was able to intervene directly and extensively in the lives of the people. Similarly, in other countries like the mixed advanced Western economies and many developing countries with a purely capitalist ideology, the economy is structured in such a way that though the interventionist role of the government is usually relatively small, there is always emphasis on the provision of a policy framework (i.e through development plans) within which the economy and other sectors operate. What this means is that, in all areas of the economy, the need for a general framework in form of development plans cannot be overemphasized. The essence of planning by government, therefore, is that it cloud make a conscious choice regarding the rate and direction of growth. The most logical interpretation of this is that the relative rates at which heavy industry, light industry, agricultural improvement, transport and commerce, housing and the like are to be pursued become a matter of conscious polices. It is therefore reasonable to say here that, through a national comprehensive plan, it will be possible to make rational decisions to achieve deliberate, consistent and well-balanced action towards socio-economic development and good governance. The successful implementation of many projects before and after independence and up to a point in the history of Nigeria as a nation was due substantially to the strategy of pursuing economic and social development through periodic national development plans. Because of this, the dawn of participatory democracy, the rights of citizens such as the freedoms of expression and of association are seen as sacrosanct. Often these rights are written in a constitution or other public documents. When people freely exercise these rights by volunteering to forward a valued cause, or by protesting a government policy, they do so as part of civil society. A significant problem in most developing countries is over-centralization of decision making and the lack of stakeholders involvement that permit patronage of powerful special interests and high levels of corruption. Scholars are agreed that lack of stakeholder buy-in attenuates the policy process, decreases efficiency and this in-turn affects economic growth. This is where civil society can play a major role by contributing to greater transparency and accountability. On transparency, we believe that it is the right of the people of the Africa State nation, to know what funds accrue to the coffers of the state’s and the various local government councils and how they are utilized. This is the only way to secure the trust and confidence of the people in whom sovereignty lies. Brainstorm Associates have work with all Level of Government to comply with this paradigm shift on the issue of transparency, probity and accountability, to reflect the new Africa we are building. Over the years there have been arguments in favour of CSOs. The dominant view is that CSOs are perceived as more flexible, participatory and responsive to local needs of the poor. There is the belief that State policies are typically urban based, delivering to politically favored areas. CSOs can potentially foster and support grassroots organizations to become more numerous, sizable, resourceful, and self-reliant. Also, grassroots contacts enable CSOs to provide critical information on potential crisis and thus contribute to early warning systems. There is the cost effective argument. Typically, CSOs require less financial inputs than government agencies and therefore are more cost effective, an attribute that is important in financially constrained third world countries. CSOs can be more resourceful and innovative as they involve local communities in the identification and resolution of development problems which are more cost effective, more sustainable, and more compatible with community values and norms. On this note, CSOs are formed by people who have common needs, interests and values like tolerance, inclusion, cooperation and equality; and development through a fundamentally endogenous and autonomous process which cannot easily be controlled from outside. Civil society has been widely recognized as an essential third sector. Its strength can have a positive influence on the state and the market. Civil society is therefore seen as an increasingly important agent for promoting good governance like transparency, effectiveness, openness, responsiveness and accountability. Civil society can further and improve good governance, first, by policy analysis and advocacy; second, by regulation and monitoring of state performance and the action and behavior of public officials; third, by building social capital and enabling citizens to identify and articulate their values, beliefs, civic norms and democratic practices; fourth, by mobilizing particular constituencies, particularly the vulnerable and marginalized sections of masses, to participate more fully in politics and public affairs; and fifth, by development work to improve the wellbeing of their own and other communities. Budgeting process is the continuum of budget preparation, approval, execution, reporting, Audit and reviews. This process revolves round the executive and legislative structures in a democratic system. In a capitalist economy like Nigeria, government plays an essential compensatory function; that is, it performs those functions that the market economy does not do efficiently or lacks the incentive to do at all. These functions have been classified as allocation, distribution and stability. In a federal system, federal, state, and local levels of government perform these functions in varying degrees. The Federal government is more heavily engaged in economic stabilization and redistribution functions than are state and local governments, and controls larger budgetary allocations. The intellectual political and economic order has been impacted by the rise in civil society organizing...events which has prove that civil society has become a social force that seeks to put people before profit, food on the table before boosting national reserves. This force of change questions the rational for poor people dying of easily preventable diseases, and does not understand why poor people cannot afford life saving treated mosquito nets. The relevance of the civil society cuts across all the facts of nation and state life - from economic, political, health, social, and environmental developments - as they play vital roles to ensure sustainable development in all aspects of state life. The role of the civil society in achieving credible election in the Nigerian 2015 general elections is what Brainstorm Associates Research Professional Council attempts to investigate. An assessment will be done on the involvement of the civil society groups in the pursuance of credible election and how influential these groups are in the electoral process in Nigeria. This has been done qualitatively, relying solely on secondary available data and resources. In Nigeria, the limitations imposed on science, technology and innovation research and development, and information technology transfer by the fiscal problems of the day need to be overcome. This will require a carefully coordinated approach, which recognizes in general the less wasteful nature of a simpler fiscal policy, while appreciating the absolute necessity of encouraging innovation in the private sector. Frameworks to promote linkages between universities, science, engineering and information technology institutions/academy and the public/private sectors are needed with a view to sharing risks, resources and insights with respect to precompetitive research. The most important focus of the budget system is to specify the line item ceilings in the budget allocation process and to ensure that agencies do not spend in excess of their allocation. Brainstorm Associates identifies the activities depicting the budgeting process of the federal government. Specifically, the process includes: i. Presidential articulation and communication of budget policy objectives. ii. Ministerial call circular further amplifies the president’s budget policy guidelines in a call circular to the federal ministries, extra – ministerial departments and parastatals requesting the advance proposal for the forth-coming fiscal years budget. iii. iii. Ministerial budget hearing and defence, and Draft estimates consolidations iv. Federal executive council review of draft estimates and approval of draft estimate. v. Presidential presentation of draft estimate before each house of national assembly not later than 6o days before the expiration of each financial in the form of an appropriation bill. vi. Legislative discussion of budget policy objectives, second reading at plenary and further considerations by Appropriation committee and sub-committees, legislative ministerial defence, national assembly harmonisation and approval of the appropriation bill. vii. Approved appropriation bill with presidential assent produces an appropriation act for implementation. Since communicating the results of any Performance Budgeting Balance initiative to legislators, state commissions, ministries, agencies, and the public is extremely important, particularly if its implemented via executive order. Prospective readers of budget information will prefer a wide range of information – some financial and some not. They will want to see outcome measures, customer preferences and cost-related information (including efficiency and tax burden). In addition, they will want the information placed into context with comparisons among governmental units Brainstorm Associates will argue here that “the Legislature must be willing to accept a longer-term view of implementation and results” and ‘Performance Budgeting’ requires a change in the Legislature’s perspective towards the budget.” Similarly, the Performance Institute cites “the Legislature’s cultural resistance to Performance and accountability” as an obstacle to Performance Budgeting Balance success. These obstacles become even more problematic in an environment where term limits have compressed the window for producing results and staff has assumed a much more prominent role in the budget process. Many scholars has highlighted reasons for the legislature’s reluctance to cede some of its control over resource allocation in adopting Performance Budgeting Balance, no suggestions are offered for actually changing the legislature’s current perspective. In fact, the only solution to this problem incorporated into the above recommendations is to circumvent the legislature whenever possible. However, this is likely to cause political problems that could adversely impact the success of Performance Budgeting Balance over the long term. Public sector budgeting in both developed and developing economies is evolving. The traditional budget approach has focused on inputs, such as the resources (funding and staff) that are available to an agency. Appropriation Acts are enacted annually for the purpose, not only for regulating financial and accounting matters, but principally to provide for the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund such sums of money as considered justifiable for the recurrent expenditure including contribution to the Development Fund for capital projects for the service of the federation. Section 81(2) and 120(2) of the constitution authorizes the President of the Federation and Governor of a State to make Withdrawals from the consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation and States, respectively, of the Sum necessary to meet that expenditure and the appropriation of those sums for the purpose specified therein. In Nigeria, the 1999 constitution (section 80 subsection 1-4) is explicit ion the unlimited authority of the National Assembly to determine the contents of the budget, and section 81(1) authorizes that “the president shall cause to be prepared and laid before each House of the National Assembly at any time in each year estimates of the revenues and expenditures of the Federation for the next following financial year.” It is clear that it is the president that initiates the annual budgets, which goes through the National Assembly appropriation processes. Accordingly the only restriction must apply to the budget process, is that the budget must be finance-able. As governments, private sectors, NGOs, civil societies, individuals and the general public, we all have responsibilities in protecting the environment and ensuring sustainable development. The government cannot tackle these problems alone. Every one of us, irrespective of our gender, class or age, is a stakeholder in our national development; Brainstorm Associates want to believe that this statement goes beyond mere commitment to environmental development, to include efforts towards political, economic, social and other forms of development within the state and even beyond. we goes further to say that the civil society organisation could meaningfully contribute to environmental governance by focusing attention on issues which could inform and alert citizens on environmental crimes, thereby increasing the quality of public compliance to environmental policies and regulations. Noting that, at state, federal and local levels of government, civil society organisations had played key roles in the protection of the environment and in the promotion of sustainable development. Like in other developing countries, and even in most developed nations, Nigeria has a several civil society groups that tend to put both the government and their policies in check, assist in achieving some of those objections that would have seemed impossible for the government to achieve on her own. Although these organisations vary in composition, mission statement, vision statement, and core values - NGOs, CSOs, etc - they all have in common an ideology of promoting equity and justice in the polity and bringing about development that can be sustained for many generations to come. Considering the fact that these organisations contribute tremendously to the activities of government, they can considerably influence government policies and programs positively to the benefit of the citizens in the state. Hereto, Individuals and groups, both on the national and international scene, demand that civil society organisations do their best to ensure credible elections in 2015. The responsibility of a credible, free and fair election no longer to be solely that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, as the tide has shifted to include civil society organisation. Therefore, in almost all democracies, civil society as the conscience of the society though the various instrument of advocacy, the pride of social change, public accountability and good governance. In fact, it is impossible to anticipate accountability, transparency and good governance is any electoral process without the active collaboration of civil societies. Obviously, having established the paramount importance of civil society organisation in the electoral process and the sustenance of democracy and governance, it is imperative to also identify some important roles of civil society organisations in the wake of current political transition in Nigeria. These roles basically include, but are not limited to; • Voter education • Monitoring of election process In educating the voters, civil society groups organisations are to assist in ensuring that all eligible citizens in the country are made to realize the importance of registering to voting and actually coming out to vote on the election day. Illiteracy levels in the rural areas have largely affected the assurance of the rural citizens on voting and election, and as such these citizens need to understand the importance and power of their votes. Another equally important role of the civil society organisation is the monitoring of the entire electoral process - from the issuance of notice of election to the swearing-in of elected candidates - to ensure that all the tenets of electoral procedures as stated in the electoral act and strictly adhered to in order to achieve fair and free election. Scholars have opined that most civil society organisations have roles that are defined or determined by the environmental factors under which they were created as an attempted specific enumerations of civil society roles, some of these were included: 1. They serve as watchdog to check the excesses of government and expose, curtail violations of human rights, abuse of the constitution. They thus exercise over democratic political institutions. 2. They support the role of political parties in stimulating political participation, increasing political efficiency and skills and promoting appreciation of the obligations of democratic citizens. In democratic settings, the more important role of political parties stimulating political participation will be much visible if such roles are complemented by the various civil society groups that we have in the society. In the case of Nigeria, it has been observed that an average Nigerian is sceptical about the various political parties and profess membership of it because of selfish interest. 3. They provide a crucial arena for the development of such democratic attributes as tolerance, willingness to compromise and respect for opposing viewpoints. 4. They are an important channel of information dissemination and thus help citizens to collectively pursue and defend their interest and values. 5. When engaged in election monitoring, civil society organisations enhance voters confidence and affirms credibility by exposing electoral fraud and other undemocratic activities. Brainstorm Associates also asserts that a democratically included civil society group has roles as: a. Promotion and defence of the constitution and rule of law b. The enhancement of the integrity and efficiency of the democratic institution and processes. c. The development of a viable democratic culture in the polity. It is obvious from the above, that civil society organisations should definitely not be isolated in the efforts towards the attainment of a viable and sustainable democracy. However, a synergy should be grossly encouraged between civil society organisations and other international and government institutions and parastatals in the pursuit of sustainable democracy, even in the electoral process. A commitment to poverty alleviation, yet we have relatively small allocations to agriculture and rural infrastructures where the bulk of our poor people live. A commitment to private sector driven growth, yet we continue to approve deficit budgets that push interest rates up thereby crowding out the private sector. The financial budgeting and accounting systems are not integrated into a single integrated financial management system, there is often a disconnect among investment planning, budget, accounting, cash management, audit and evaluation (concurrent and ex-post), undermining the feedback necessary to enhance accountability and sound fiscal policy choices. These situations require the evaluation of the importance of the Nigerian budgeting process to fiscal management and re-examination of the role of the appropriation processes in fiscal management measured in terms of budget compliance and the magnitude of budget variance. In future, expenditures will be control through incremental line item budget changes. This approach does not always give attention to actual achievements of government programs. In the private sector, efficient resource allocation relies upon the free-flow of information between consumers and producers, price signals reflect consumer preferences, customer satisfaction, and supplier costs and producer performance while competition eliminates poor performers and shifts resources to those entities that improve efficiency and elevate utilities. Budgets serve many important functions to government generally. For the purpose of the ongoing project of Brainstorm Associates Leadership in Community Development Project 2014, we shall focus on the importance, which budgets serve to government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals. In the first sense, since budgets are contracts agreed upon annually by the executive and legislative arms, it allows the executive agencies and departments of government to raise and spend public funds in a specified ways for the coming year. In addition, budget serve as a planning device used to translate present scarce fiscal and human resources in all the government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals s into future goals and programs. In this respect, budget serves as a vital instrument for tapping and mobilizing human resources, how human talent at this level and public monies will be utilized as well as what tasks government will perform. Moreover, within the government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals, budgets are forces for internal coordination and efficiency. This is possible in that given the relative smallness in their sizes, coordination of activities will be easily achieved and efficiency will be more guaranteed. This is also so particularly because of the imposition of choices concerning how public programmes should be under taken, interrelated, and measured in terms of their value, effectiveness, and worth to the general public. In addition, budgets is a political document, reflecting through the allocation of funds the ultimate desires, interest and power of various groups within the body politic as expressed by elected legislative bodies. Thus, budgets reflect the quality and quantity of the government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals, and the support, which the people will give such government ministries, departments, agencies and parastatals. Provided there is proper participation, budget at this level encourage goal congruence and increase motivation. African Countries Governments are performing its role inline with Brainstorm Associates ongoing Leadership in Community Development Project 2014 by means of a set of functions which enables it to influence an environment, within its jurisdiction of democratic governance agenda, in which innovation is being promoted. Some of the human resources at a governments disposal, which enables its ability to stimulate an enabling environment, include the right to establish laws and regulations; allocate public resources according to a set of priorities, which it establishes, and initiate and implement programmes related to these functions such as the Research and Technology Foresight and Audit exercises. Therefore, in order to arrange for the coordinated implementation of policies relating to innovation, and in particular to the governments own role in R&D and in the provision of scientific services, a new management and budgetary system for all sectors should be introduce. This system expects to incorporate a regular process of external review of all government programs. Since government, spending plays an important role in the functioning of a national system of innovation, a new Science Budget, displaying all spending by government, as it is required in order to permit Ministers to better assess relative priorities, on a multi-year basis, across the full spectrum of governments activities in support of innovation. As Public establishment, however, do not typically receive performance information through price signals. Public sector revenue is generated through means related to equity and not necessarily reflecting preferences, satisfaction, or performance. Therefore, governments generally use past funding levels to determine future resource allocation. In recent time, the principles of Performance Based Budgeting have gained popularity due to the fact that budget decision-makers and the general public have demanded better accountability for not just the use of resources, but for results public programs are to generate. This has made performance budgeting to be on the agenda of public budget management in the last few decades. Specifically, since the 1997 reviews report till date, it has become a top priority for budgeting reforms in advanced as well as developing and transition countries Thus, as could be discerned from the above, budgeting involves not only allocation but also planning, management and control. This position tallies with that expressed by the United Nations Manual for programme and Performance Budgeting which are virtually the same, hereto, is the most appropriate definition for governments in developing country like Nigeria. According budgeting is an “operational activities” that must be contrasted to a plan which is a “blue print for action”. By this definition, economic policy questions are not expected to be dealt with by budgeting only but rather, by planning. Budgeting as the “translation of the longer term performance and resource use plan in to a more detail and precise plan for the year ahead” while we can now sees it as “the process of converting the goals, programmes and projects into money terms” Budgeting is more than a mere economic term. For the purpose of this paper it has to be understood in its most inclusive politico – administrative sense. It is on the basis of the above views budgeting as a part of political process; proves here that decision strategies are premise on each government commissions, ministries and agencies historical base and involve: a) defending the base against the cuts in old programme; b) ii. increasing the base by inching ahead with existing programmes and; c) iii. expanding the base by adding new programmes; Consequently as budget, which is the output of budgeting is derived from old French word “bougette” (meaning a small bag), has been tentatively used to describe fiscal expectation, expenditure and future planning of an individual, organization, or government within a given period of time. Different government commission, ministries and agencies in competing for the scarce resources of government use these strategies; budgeting is, thus, not a static phenomenon. It is a process and a lot of politicking goes into its formulation. It is on the basis of this that patience and caution have to be exercised by those involved in its formulation and implementations as its process reflects the dynamics of political forces in the system or organization. From the foregoing, it is clear that public finance, its sourcing, spending and management through budgeting and budgetary process cannot be ignored or taken for granted without severe and detrimental economic and political consequences within any polity. This is particularly so, because the budget is usually the pillar upon which the finances of the state or organisation is fully erected for any given year. In other words, finance as viewed within the context of this discussion and the need for its prudent management as well as its indispensability to effective governance, brought about the need for proper and appropriate budgetary decision-making process. This budgetary decision-making goes through different phases thus: i. executive preparation and submission of budget proposals to the budget office: ii. legislative authorization and appropriation; the approval by the legislature, in its capacity as the “cheglem writer”, of the appropriation bill(s) of the executive. iii. the execution of the approved estimates. iv. auditing of accounts to ensure that the budget is executed as approved. The budgetary process is not without its own problem which (may) hinder its successful undertaking. Some of these hindrances include the difficulty and near impossibility of getting necessary data in precise figures for budget compilation. Budget decision entails forecasting of the future needs which may be right or wrong; accomplishments in relation to costs cannot be precisely measured even after the programme might have been implemented; and that administrators have no means of calculating the relative usefulness of governmental activities because the activities have no prices in the market place. These hindrances notwithstanding, budget and budgetary process is still a mechanism through which a particular system is given meaningful financial, economic and political directions. Finally, the principle of strict budget discipline bas evaded the implementation of the federal budgets. It is expected that all levels of government should confine themselves to the limit of expenditure in the approved estimate or supplementary estimate. The picture in the analysis above is far short of this stipulation. Aggregate expenditure, on the average has not being equal or less than prudently determined aggregate revenue. Inappropriate projections of the revenue and expenditure profile had brought about off-budget receipts and off-budget outlays, which poses fiscal management challenges. The significant factor that applies uniquely to federal budgets and other tiers of government in Nigeria is the price of oil and oil revenue contributions to total revenue. The oil cartel price is the external factor that drives revenue collections and government expenditures and for this reason, it should be prominently discussed in any budgetary planning and monitoring. Budgetary reforms are suggested to ensure appropriate forecasting of revenues and expenditures, provisioning for management of off-budget receipts and off-budget outlays and fiscal compliance to appropriation acts passed by the national assembly. Annual economic objectives of the government should guide budgetary allocation so that the persistent practice of incongruence could be forestalled. The national Assembly should establish a permanent budget office for collation of data on revenue, expenditures and general economic performance rather than relying on the executive arm’s estimates, which are greatly conservative and misleading. The current issue of fiscal federalism and management of off-budget receipts, especially from oil revenue, should be legally mandated to provide for savings and investment of such funds that does not fall within budgeted/estimated revenue. This will ensure budget discipline and greatly enhance our budgetary process to produce timely budgets that will not only serve as tool of accountability but also a budget for strategic national economic management. For the majority of people living in poverty, struggling to feed their children, mourning the loss of loved ones to printable diseases and unsure of the future, development planning is meaningless. There is the need for an urgent, all inclusive people-centered development plan that will have concrete, realistic and achievable targets within a medium term strategy framework. It is not enough to build health clinics if there are no roads for mothers to gain access to them. It is not enough to train teachers or provide textbooks, if the children have to struggle with homework at night in the dark. People do not live their lives in the health sectors, or education sectors, or infrastructure sectors, arranged in tidy compartments. People live in families, villages, communities, countries where all the issues of everyday life merge. We need to connect the dots. This will require a national economic leadership that has its overriding goal as the improvement of national welfare and quality of life and will provide shared vision for the complicated national problems. Development plans and National Visions if not consistently implemented cannot lead to sustainable development as exemplified by Nigeria as Brainstorm Associates is set to refocus, re-invigorate and re-engineer the Public Private policy to focus on critical infrastructure such as power, transportation and those infrastructure that support the artisans, craft-men and the small scale business in general to enable individuals take control of their lives. Above all, aligned with genuine and improved stakeholders’ involvement which is very critical especially at the lower tiers of government, organised private sector (OPS), Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), Community Based Organizations (CBOs), organized labour, academia, professional bodies etc in order to ensure a paradigm shift and wider buy-in. we will continue to act as innovative research institute a broad-based and functional plan coordinating unit manned by professionals then strengthen the data capacity base through strengthening the human and institutional capacity of statistical services especially at the State and Local Government levels, while instituting a robust monitoring and evaluation system for development plans. SOURCE: CITIZENS TIPSTER
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 14:32:26 +0000
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