Project management as a tool to stop waste, fraud and abuse (1)

“Men do not understand how great a revenue is economy” – Cicero

“Corruption, Embezzlement and Fraud are characteristics that exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it nor not. What successful economies do is keep it to the minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff” – Alan Greenspan

“What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse” – Isabel Allende

The history of Nigeria is replete and cannot be fully narrated without mentioning how her resources have been managed and pillaged over the last 55 years. Many abandoned programmes and projects litter the geographical space called Nigeria spread across all the 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 like good roads, power and potable water, educational standards that have gone south, misapplication and misappropriation of funds, intellectual capacity of a lot of officials, tribalism and nepotism, 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 project management. These factors have led to a very high cost of doing business and made governance very difficult. Managers operating in this very unfavourable environment face a myriad of challenges. Only a few industry and government officials see the need for the concept of project management, monitoring and controls. As a result, projects are either 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, or the projects are killed at the initiation stages. It is against this background that we examine what roles the worthy ideals of project management and project controls play in eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in both the private and the public sectors of the economy.

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 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. Likewise big corporations, medium and small scale enterprises are in business to make profits for their shareholders and investors by making use of the limited resources available to them. Efficient, judicious and proper use of these 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. In pursuance of the above objectives and to also avoid waste, fraud and abuse, the principles and values of project management are needed.

Waste

According to dictionary.com, waste is defined as resources that are consumed, spent or employed uselessly without return, used to no avail or profit or squandered. There is no doubt that there is widespread wastage of funds, resources, human capital and time in both the public and private sectors of the economy. Examples abound of how government funds are flagrantly wasted with no repercussions or accountability, or how else can you explain a situation whereby a government official is allocated 10 expensive cars for use? That is official rascality and should be checked and discontinued forthwith.

The private sector is not left out of these bone-headed expenditures. I have heard about a bank that allocates four cars to each of its general managers. Wastage is when billions of naira is spent on programmes and projects that are of no use whatsoever. Wastage is when tonnes of money are expended on meaningless anniversary celebrations. Wastage is when programmes of an erstwhile administration are abandoned or discontinued because of political differences no matter how noble and beneficial the programmes are. Wastage is when scarce funds are spent recklessly on unprofitable causes and projects without recourse to due process and extant rules and regulations. Wastage is when an expressway is designed with roundabouts with no overhead bridges resulting in gridlock, wasted man-hours and environmental pollution. I recently passed by the old Federal Secretariat Ikoyi, Lagos. What a waste!

Fraud

An act of fraud is obtaining things of value by deceit, sharp practice, chicanery or by breach of confidence for profit, personal aggrandizement and dishonest advantage. Defrauding the government or corporations happens when illegal acts are committed to empty their coffers. It is common knowledge that fraud levels in the public and the private sectors of the economy are enormous. For the government, the taxpayers get to pay for it while the shareholders and investors are on the receiving end for the corporations and businesses.

Procurement fraud and ill-intentioned contracts are the most rampant in the public sector while corporate fraud takes all kinds of forms. Roads, building construction and repair contracts, which for the most part are over-inflated, are awarded several times over, especially for some roads, year in year out, yet the roads are full of giant craters called pot-holes. These are criminal acts that should be punished to the full extent of the law.

Abuse

Abuse can be described as ways to improperly, wrongly or unjustly use one’s authority in the management of resources. Abuse happens in the absence of official controls and clear-cut rules. Abuse is when a government or corporate official uses his or her office to appropriate to themselves property that should have been otherwise used for public good. Abuse is when state governments, giving spurious excuses, buy expensive jets for joy rides to the detriment of more pressing issues. Abuse is when corporate executives decide to lay off middle and lower level staff due to their sheer mismanagement of funds. Abuse is when the budget is stuffed with line items solely meant to siphon money from the government or corporate purse. Abuse is when a single government official in convoy of about 20 cars forces his or her way through traffic to the detriment of other road users leaving behind sorrows, tears and blood.

Ayodele Akingbade