The history of the budgeting process and implementation in Nigeria is replete and cannot be fully recounted without mentioning how her commonwealth and resources have been mismanaged and pillaged over the last 55 years. The resultant effects are abandoned programmes and projects that litter the Nigerian landscape spread across all the 36 states. Several reasons can be adduced for this problem. They range from the culture of the people, lack of adequate planning, lack of basic and needed infrastructures, misapplication and misappropriation of funds, intellectual capacity of a lot of officials, lack of basic understanding of budgetary matters, lack of accountability, bad governance and a culture of corruption, to outright hostility to the idea and ideals of proper management. These factors have led to a very high cost of doing business and made governance very difficult. Only a few industry and government officials see the need for the concept of project management, monitoring and controls. As a result projects are abandoned because of shoddy planning, ineffective monitoring and control, poor project management practices, schedule slippages, outright mismanagement of project resources, deliberate sabotage, cost overruns, constant changing and revision of the project scope.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria says the primary purpose of government is to provide for the security and welfare of the people. By security and welfare, it means the government shall provide the enabling environment for the general well-being of the overall population, providing good and passable roads, clean environment and potable water, sound education, facilitating constant electricity supply, good access to medical services and good governance. In pursuance of the above functions and basic needs, the government through the MDAs and other agencies embarks on various developmental programmes and projects. Efficient, judicious and proper use of the barely enough resources should be of paramount importance and it should be on the front-burner at all times when programmes and projects are executed to eliminate or curb waste, fraud and abuse.
It is within this context that I examine the budget of the Federal Government for the year 2016 with particular focus on capital expenditure and advice on ways the capital projects and programmes contained in the budget are delivered on time, within scope and cost. Over the years the average ratio of the recurrent expenditure to the capital expenditure has been 90 percent to 10 percent. For 2016, the amount to be spent on capital projects has been increased to 30 percent of the total budget. In a developing economy as ours, the ratio should be 60 percent for capital spending and 40 percent for recurrent spending.
The 2016 reversal from previous years is a good development and it is very good news for a country that is badly in need of infrastructural and other shovel-ready projects. No nation can survive economically without good network of roads, functioning rail system, constant and stable electricity supply, potable and clean drinking water, solid transportation system and an outstanding educational system. It is hoped and assumed that the capital expenditure will be used for intended projects and that the projects will be executed and completed. This is predicated on the basis that the projects will be planned, executed, monitored, controlled and closed according to the basic creeds and philosophies of project management with regard to the contractors and government departments.
Traditional theories and studies have suggested that a lot of projects embarked upon worldwide fail. The regularly mentioned and cited 2010 Standish Group Report indicated that only 37 percent of IT projects were successfully completed, 42 percent were seriously challenged and 21 percent either failed or were abandoned. Non-IT projects don’t fare any better. According the Project Management Institute (PMI) – the world’s largest project management association – 2015 Pulse of the profession study, close to 60 percent of projects embarked upon worldwide are successful.
Programme and project management
Project/programme management can be described as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to achieve set project/programme goals and objectives. The notion that the concept of project management is unnecessary and dispensable is very prevalent in the Nigerian business and government landscape. This might be due to the fact that not much is known about its importance and advantages or that a lot of company executives and senior government officials are used to the unregulated and uncontrolled approaches to implementing programmes and individual projects. Project management is seen as an arduous task of meandering through needless loops and layers within an organisation on the way to successful execution of projects. This thinking is short-sighted and has led to numerous abandoned, uncompleted, unsustainable and failed projects culminating in avoidable loss and wastage of funds and limited resources.
Ayodele Akingbade
