The enormous waste implied by these findings must be put in perspective by recalling the high rate of insecurity, kidnapping and youth agitation that Governor Uduaghan inherited in 2007.
Sample MDA-specific findings
The 2011 Delta State Economic Dashboard report chastised the Ministry of Economic Planning for inordinate focus on budget monitoring to the neglect of strategic planning. The report also upbraided the ministry for limited attention to building the capacity of its officials and the absence of a defined Bureau of Statistics. On DESOPADEC, the 2011 dashboard report frowned at the 3,600 people on its payroll noting that many of these had no compelling functions.
Besides, the report said DESOPADEC’s achievements were unclear. Turning to agriculture, the dashboard report lambasted the ministry for not regularly measuring output and was therefore unable to determine progress. Even more disappointing, the report stated that policy formulation and investment decisions in the Ministry of Agriculture were not based on data.
The 2011 dashboard report also touched on the management of special infrastructure in the state and observed that the on-going projects appeared too many for the technical resources available. On the controversial Warri Business Park, the report condemned the state government’s approach to implementing it saying “…the approach appears not to take cognizance of the importance of contract, deadlines and discipline of project management.”
Furthermore, the report said the long cycles of delay had wearied project team members and all local and international consultants working on the project. “The project has consistently missed milestones due to delay in sponsor approvals and feedback. Some prospects have re-located their projects to other states with similar comparative advantages due to prolonged delay”, the report lamented.
The agency in charge of poverty alleviation was not spared. It was roundly condemned for having “…opaque strategic plan for reducing poverty rate beyond providing credit”. The Women Development Agency received thorough lashing for poor data and record keeping (i.e. no record of total grants given to PLWHIV.
2012 Dashboard Report
The dashboard report for fiscal 2012 showed remarkable improvement in the performance of the 28 MDAs assessed. Two agencies (transport and special projects) graduated to the class of MDAs performing on target while the number of MDAs moving towards target increased from five in 2011 to 16. The MDAs performing off target or below expectation thus fell from 21 to 10. However, information made available to this writer did not include the actual overall performance of the state’s economy and the four segments, a regrettable departure from the practice in the 2011 report when the entire state economy achieved only 30 percent of its potential.
Assessment
The economic dashboard is useful for its visual display of the performance of MDAs at a glance using colour-codes. However, it should be pointed out that the dashboard is not a viable substitute for detailed integrated strategic planning which holds the key to sustainable economic growth and development. I have in another part of this article written about the disdain of the Uduaghan administration for strategic planning in terms that some consider harsh. My purpose is to decry, with all the emphasis at my command, the refusal of senior officials of the Uduaghan administration to accept that the Vision 2020 document, the MDGs and other existing high-level policy documents in the state contain enough ingredients for the development of Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) documents for key sectors, a Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and a robust state-wide Monitoring and Evaluation System based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). I am vindicated that the 2011 edition of the dashboard report chastised the Ministry of Economic Planning for inordinate focus on budget monitoring to the neglect of strategic planning.
Based on this submission, the Economic Dashboard is inferior to a robust M&E system. This conclusion can be supported by the eight points articulated below:
1. Working with KPIs without first developing MTSS documents for key sectors is confusing and makes the process more difficult for managers and their subordinates to grasp the essence of a performance management tool.
2. The economic dashboard model uses the term “sector” very loosely to mean each of the MDAs assessed. This is a departure from the usage in strategy work where it means a group of MDAs engaged in complementary work. For example, the education sector in Delta State would consist of the Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Basic Education as well as their parastatals. Similarly, the health sector would include the Ministry of Health and all agencies that report to it.Terms like “monitoring” and “evaluation” are also not used in a technical sense.
3. The dashboard does not allow for comparative analysis of performance across sub-national and national units. To assist analysts and policy makers conduct comparative analysis, international best practice recommends adoption of the Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). COFOG classifies government expenditure data from the SYSTEM OF NATIONAL ACCOUNTS by the purpose for which the funds are used.
4. The Dashboard classifies the economy of Delta state into four segments: Revenue and Planning, Development, Infrastructure and Productivity. Ideally, these four segments should have been selected from the 10 first-level COFOG groups. This was not done by the consultants and greatly reduces the usefulness of the economic dashboard.
5. The dashboard model is not a viable substitute for a robust M&E system because the latter is a tried and tested set of components, for example, indicators, targets, activities and processes, where each component is related to the other component within the structure and where they all serve a common purpose of tracking the implementation and results of an intervention (source: Adapted from SAMDI, 2006).
6. The Dashboard ignores the M&E Governance structure recommended for states and LGAs in the country’s Vision 202020 document. M&E governance structure refers to roles and responsibilities in relation to M&E.
7. The standard solution to overlapping functions of MDAs is mandate mapping which usually precedes the elaboration of medium term sector strategies. We have seen this happen in Lagos state.
8. The reporting capabilities of a robust M&E system are enormous and unrivalled. They include the Performance Evaluation Report which can do the work of the Economic Dashboard because it is meant to:
Capture and document evidence of sectors’ performance against key performance indicators;
Give details on highlights of high standard performance; and
Give details of areas of performance in need of improvement.
Weneso Orogun
