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Sudan Tribune

Plural news and views on Sudan

Fair management of public expenditure

By Zechariah Manyok Biar

March 20, 2011 — In every government all over the world, development takes place only when there are clear plans for developmental activities. Good plans in themselves are not enough in achieving sustainable development. There must be commitment to the laid-down plans in every institution in the government. The implementation of plans is what matters. And the better way of the implementation of plans is to ensure that there is fair management of public expenditure.

Fair management of public expenditure should be result-oriented in order to meet the requirement of good governance. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan is now leaning on this direction.

There is a three-year plan going on now under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in the Government of Southern Sudan in preparation for the new state of South Sudan. This three-year plan meets the element of fair public expenditure in good governance, at least in theory now. The plan becomes practical in July this year after the full independence of the Republic of South Sudan.

At the level of theory, the plan is looking into the priorities of the government. These priorities consider the relevance, applicability, sustainability and effectiveness of program areas in various sectors. For the plan to be result-oriented, it considers inputs, activities, outputs, and the immediate outcomes within the next three years.

It is exciting when one follows the process of the above mentioned plan, but the problem will come at the level of implementation. Bad governance does not mean that leaders do not know good plans. They know them but are often reluctant to implement them as they are planned. Researchers believe that the problem in low-income societies or governments is that the practice of results-oriented public expenditure management is very rare.

The implementation that conceals the policy objectives can easily derail from the intended goal, leading to unwanted expenditure of public funds and obscure the policies on their true budgetary costs. In good governance, implementers of plans respect financial procedures in order to produce their intended results. This is the only way that public administration can be more efficient and effective.

The procedures of implementation should always be guided by the objectives of the plan which are clear and precise on the results expected of each employee and service provider. In this case, personal responsibilities are needed. Any institution, whether public or private, pays its workers because of what they do for the institution. It is a waste of money if individuals who do nothing are paid for doing nothing.

Some people may argue that the workers in the Government of Southern Sudan do not do what is expected of them sometimes because they do not have any idea on how to do it, since we just came out of the bush. This could be true, but it is still not an excuse for spending public money on individuals who do not do what is expected of them.

There are solutions to the above mentioned situation. One of the solutions is job training that helps the government make sure that every employee knows what is expected of him or her. Workers are not just needed to do what they are told to do; they are also expected to plan on how to maximize performances in their respective areas of responsibilities. These plans do not need the President, the Vice President, the Ministers, or the Governors to do them. They are works of directors and managers.

Directors or managers in various service areas should not stick to one-side-fit-it-all style. They must be flexible, creative, and innovate to seek efficiency in the improvements of services. They must be realistic in the choosing of their target areas of activities and periodically review their functionality so that they identify and remove deficiencies in the structure of incentives. Without a continuous assessment, nothing could be achieved. Remedial actions take place only where there are assessments.

The problem we have now in the Government of Southern Sudan is that contracts are given to contractors with so little amount of assessment that they either do a very poor job like the roads that we see in some states or they do not move further enough to convince the public on whether it was worth spending a particular amount of money on a particular project. Some of these contractors are enriching themselves at the expense of public because of deficiencies in our system.

In order for our Government to ensure fair management of public expenditure, a clear procedure of assessment should be put in place to identify underperformance in any project in order to terminate such a contract and look for alternative service providers. Those who perform above expectations must often be rewarded to encourage underperformers do better job.

Zechariah Manyok Biar, BA. Edu., MACM, MSSW. He can be reached at [email protected]

5 Comments

  • Liberator
    Liberator

    Fair management of public expenditure
    Zechariah Manyok Biar (Director of under secretary of Internal Affairs for policy & Implementation)

    Now, you are becoming a Gov’t watchdog right? please, I would advised you to keep whatver expertise you have about management or Security(None) you might have acquired while here in the United States U.S on the government scholarship given to you via Nepotism practices.

    Please stays with your uncle Gier Chuang in the Ministry of Internal Affairs which is under the International community radar in light of recent revelations of torture, rape of the women recruiters, which I think you helped perpetuate through your policies recommendations since you holds the title of: Director of under secretary of Internal Affairs for policy & implementation.

    Where is my country(What a joke)

    Reply
  • Madior
    Madior

    Fair management of public expenditure
    Liberator
    Manyok is such hypocrit person, he always swimming around exploring his logic thinking about what should be done or do in Southern government. Whether is “a good government or bad government” without reasoning ability to defining the aspect of this new government. You are right, he now serving as secretary director under Gier. What is their roles to bring Athor on table to solves the crisis in the Upper Nile regions? people are new to the world of writting , so they are trying to practicing their writting ability. Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  • harry
    harry

    Fair management of public expenditure
    Dear Zechariah,

    I don’t understand the theme of your article. I’m not trying to be funny or cynical here, but I thought you were writing about Sustainable development in South Sudan. Managerially asking, how fair management of public expenditure lead to sustainable development? What are the links between the “two” in this case (article);and can we achieve sustainable development through fair management of public expenditure? What is Fair management of public expenditure, is it a new managerial or management term? Does implementation of plans ensure sustainable development, or “fair management of public expenditure”(if I can borrow your new term) in this article? Thanks,

    Harry,

    Reply
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