Operation austerity drive An action-oriented message
K.M.S.A. Kaiser | Wednesday, 21 December 2011
K.M.S.A. Kaiser
Talk of talk-shows, roundtable dialogues, articles, editorials, post editorials, gossips and what have you, the most likely topic encountered (no crossfire for sure) would be one or a cocktail from the vast gamut of burning public issues like galloping inflation, unemployment, plummeting external assistance, decelerating remittance, gaping external trade balance, declining foreign exchange reserve, increasing public borrowing and consequential crowding out of the term-loan for the private sector, precarious capital market so on and so forth. Of course, Bangladesh is by no means a stand-alone case in terms of prevalence of disconsolate financial, economic or social crises. Even a brisk snapshot of the socio-economic backdrop of any part of the present-day global village would expose existence of crises of some hue or other. Furthermore, the worrisome picture has been unfolding over the couple of yours without any relent. However, the Bangladesh situation is exacerbated by unwarranted loud denial by the concerned authority without any heed to reality. Though over the rest of the global village, the authorities concerned at the helm of affairs are hardly leaving any stone unturned with a view to overcoming the crises on the expeditious basis. The on-going efforts are at various levels viz. unilateral, bilateral and multilateral. It goes without saying that some 'ostrich' outlook is serving no legitimate purpose. On the contrary, it is perpetuating and aggravating the situation. However, not to acknowledge the existence of freedom of expression, including freedom of press, notwithstanding mild threat of disruption of utility service of the errant critics. The present-day deluge of analyses, comments and critique are raising general awareness and sensitivity on matters of significant national import. An assay at drawing an action plan for immediate adoption would possibly be a crying need of the day. The centre piece of the proposed action plan is protection and promotion of public interest in response to the prevailing realities. With this end in view, it is logical to zero on the critical mass viz, public expenditure and public revenue. The unmistakable signature tune of the topic is the wide gap between the two. One serious flaw in the public expenditure is that it is hardly subjected to public scrutiny or public hearing. Furthermore, it tends to be devoid of concern for value for money and hence the prevalence of bizarre extravagance and wastage. Ever increasing laxity is not only hurting but is possibly killing. Rigours of painstaking austerity drive and pruning of the public expenditure often tend to be brushed aside. Even now it is not impossible to stem the rot. A resolute intention and immediate action on war footing is the call of the hour. We need not be very much novel in our approach because, we can conveniently take appropriate pages from the books adopted in various parts of the present-day global village. As a matter of fact, the austerity drive unfolding in the European Union (EU) and the Americas cannot but draw attention of all and sundry. The on-going drive over there has not spared even the royal family of U.K. and the mighty U.S. Today Bangladesh needs to adopt frugal public expenditure and shun expenditure with questionable utility/return perforce; it has to be more pronounced in terms of foreign exchange expenditure. Cost saving should be effective recourse to contain unbridled public borrowing. Following urgent steps may be mulled for an appropriate response: i) Identify avoidable non-essential expenditure, both from revenue budget and development budget e.g. procurement of luxury vehicles like SUV, luxury Jeep, luxury sedan cars. It may be noted here that in neighboring India officials' transport for the highest ranking VIPs is Ambassador car or Willis Jeep (war model). ii) Identify low priority public sector projects from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and contain entry of new projects of doubtful public utility. iii) Refrain/withdraw public undertaking from commercial, trade and service sectors which are best left for efficient private sector undertakings. iv) Reduce bulging over-head cost through rational restructure of government organisations, parastatals and the cabinet. A suitable and quick recipe is available in the aborted public expenditure review commission report - 2003. The myth of using a ministry as a panacea for socio-economic problems is not only misplaced but it is also fraught with massive resource wastage. Following the failure of a series of steps for recovering of the ailing stork market, let there not be any attempt to create a ministry of capital market. v) Foreign trips of public servants and policy makers should be limited to essential and fruit-bearing ones only. Government delegations should be contained within rational size and relevant level. vi) Immediate moratorium on creation of arches, ceremonial gates, bill boards etc., in connection with VIP visits should be invoked. Likewise, illumination should be confined to national days only. Day-and-night sports/games should be avoided. It is true that some of the above-mentioned austerity drive might not yield a significant amount of savings of public resources but their symbolic impact would be on the nation and would be highly significant. It may not be out of place here to recall that in post World War-II, the Emperor of Japan called upon the people there to reduce rice consumption and himself cut down rice consumption by half. The entire nation responded positively and they continued the practice until Japan overcame the financial crisis. And the Emperor himself adhered to reduce rice consumption until he breathed his last. vii) Discretion fund for all but the head of the state and head of the government should be abolished. viii) Action programme should be adopted to bring down system loss in public sector utility services to below 20-25% and reduced corruption at the rate of 15 to 20 per cent per annum over next four to five years. ix) An effective crash programme should be taken up with a view to enhancing in-house kill and expertise of public sector organisations and procurement of external consultancy services should be restricted in order to bear minimum essential service not available within. x) Fora of experts in important fields may be formed with the retired public servants and non-resident Bangladeshis on a voluntary basis. Thailand has been following this practice. ......................................... The author is Director, Knowledge Frontier for Development (KFD) and a former Member of Planning Commission and former Chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He can be reached at: kkaiser47@yahoo.com
Talk of talk-shows, roundtable dialogues, articles, editorials, post editorials, gossips and what have you, the most likely topic encountered (no crossfire for sure) would be one or a cocktail from the vast gamut of burning public issues like galloping inflation, unemployment, plummeting external assistance, decelerating remittance, gaping external trade balance, declining foreign exchange reserve, increasing public borrowing and consequential crowding out of the term-loan for the private sector, precarious capital market so on and so forth. Of course, Bangladesh is by no means a stand-alone case in terms of prevalence of disconsolate financial, economic or social crises. Even a brisk snapshot of the socio-economic backdrop of any part of the present-day global village would expose existence of crises of some hue or other. Furthermore, the worrisome picture has been unfolding over the couple of yours without any relent. However, the Bangladesh situation is exacerbated by unwarranted loud denial by the concerned authority without any heed to reality. Though over the rest of the global village, the authorities concerned at the helm of affairs are hardly leaving any stone unturned with a view to overcoming the crises on the expeditious basis. The on-going efforts are at various levels viz. unilateral, bilateral and multilateral. It goes without saying that some 'ostrich' outlook is serving no legitimate purpose. On the contrary, it is perpetuating and aggravating the situation. However, not to acknowledge the existence of freedom of expression, including freedom of press, notwithstanding mild threat of disruption of utility service of the errant critics. The present-day deluge of analyses, comments and critique are raising general awareness and sensitivity on matters of significant national import. An assay at drawing an action plan for immediate adoption would possibly be a crying need of the day. The centre piece of the proposed action plan is protection and promotion of public interest in response to the prevailing realities. With this end in view, it is logical to zero on the critical mass viz, public expenditure and public revenue. The unmistakable signature tune of the topic is the wide gap between the two. One serious flaw in the public expenditure is that it is hardly subjected to public scrutiny or public hearing. Furthermore, it tends to be devoid of concern for value for money and hence the prevalence of bizarre extravagance and wastage. Ever increasing laxity is not only hurting but is possibly killing. Rigours of painstaking austerity drive and pruning of the public expenditure often tend to be brushed aside. Even now it is not impossible to stem the rot. A resolute intention and immediate action on war footing is the call of the hour. We need not be very much novel in our approach because, we can conveniently take appropriate pages from the books adopted in various parts of the present-day global village. As a matter of fact, the austerity drive unfolding in the European Union (EU) and the Americas cannot but draw attention of all and sundry. The on-going drive over there has not spared even the royal family of U.K. and the mighty U.S. Today Bangladesh needs to adopt frugal public expenditure and shun expenditure with questionable utility/return perforce; it has to be more pronounced in terms of foreign exchange expenditure. Cost saving should be effective recourse to contain unbridled public borrowing. Following urgent steps may be mulled for an appropriate response: i) Identify avoidable non-essential expenditure, both from revenue budget and development budget e.g. procurement of luxury vehicles like SUV, luxury Jeep, luxury sedan cars. It may be noted here that in neighboring India officials' transport for the highest ranking VIPs is Ambassador car or Willis Jeep (war model). ii) Identify low priority public sector projects from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and contain entry of new projects of doubtful public utility. iii) Refrain/withdraw public undertaking from commercial, trade and service sectors which are best left for efficient private sector undertakings. iv) Reduce bulging over-head cost through rational restructure of government organisations, parastatals and the cabinet. A suitable and quick recipe is available in the aborted public expenditure review commission report - 2003. The myth of using a ministry as a panacea for socio-economic problems is not only misplaced but it is also fraught with massive resource wastage. Following the failure of a series of steps for recovering of the ailing stork market, let there not be any attempt to create a ministry of capital market. v) Foreign trips of public servants and policy makers should be limited to essential and fruit-bearing ones only. Government delegations should be contained within rational size and relevant level. vi) Immediate moratorium on creation of arches, ceremonial gates, bill boards etc., in connection with VIP visits should be invoked. Likewise, illumination should be confined to national days only. Day-and-night sports/games should be avoided. It is true that some of the above-mentioned austerity drive might not yield a significant amount of savings of public resources but their symbolic impact would be on the nation and would be highly significant. It may not be out of place here to recall that in post World War-II, the Emperor of Japan called upon the people there to reduce rice consumption and himself cut down rice consumption by half. The entire nation responded positively and they continued the practice until Japan overcame the financial crisis. And the Emperor himself adhered to reduce rice consumption until he breathed his last. vii) Discretion fund for all but the head of the state and head of the government should be abolished. viii) Action programme should be adopted to bring down system loss in public sector utility services to below 20-25% and reduced corruption at the rate of 15 to 20 per cent per annum over next four to five years. ix) An effective crash programme should be taken up with a view to enhancing in-house kill and expertise of public sector organisations and procurement of external consultancy services should be restricted in order to bear minimum essential service not available within. x) Fora of experts in important fields may be formed with the retired public servants and non-resident Bangladeshis on a voluntary basis. Thailand has been following this practice. ......................................... The author is Director, Knowledge Frontier for Development (KFD) and a former Member of Planning Commission and former Chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank. He can be reached at: kkaiser47@yahoo.com