Why govt fails to utilise allocated plan

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Why Manipur State Govt fails to utilise allocated annual financial plan?

Shanjoy Mairembam *

Case: The Govt of Manipur is unable to make an effective strategy and utilise majority of the annual financial plan allocation for Manipur (drafted by the Planning Commission of India) as usual in the previous year.

Myth: The reasons may be due to -

Monetary extortion by militant organisations,
Financial hijack by ministers and govt officials,
Lack of support/trust from central government,
Lack of interests/participation in Manipur by private firms from outside the state and aboard,
Disadvantage of starting any new venture due to geographical location, etc.

Reality: The annual financial plan allocation for Manipur can be utilised properly with nearly 100% utilisation on various new socio-economic development projects for Manipur in spite of all the issues prevailing in the state. The complete state administrative services constitute the backbone of the Manipur State Government.

Doubts to be clarified:
(1) Are the entire administrative officials [from the top level to the bottom level] of the Manipur State Govt on par with their job requirements and responsibilities? - Regular team meetings & knowledge sharing sessions are to be conducted periodically among the state govt officials to create passion and continuous learning/development should be encouraged for all the state govt officials via collaboration with academic institutions & eminent consultants.

(2) Is there any program in the planning of the State Govt to avail confidential consulting projects with professional firms on various critical decision making projects, for example - Town planning, Highways & road planning, Primary education, Professional & Higher education, Healthcare planning, Ecological Protection planning, Reforms in Policing & state administration, Cultural & national integration of various communities, Land Utilisation Reforms on agricultural, lake, Hill & forest areas, Means to tackle any possible outcome of natural calamities in future, Power generation & means to meet the current electricity consumption, etc?

State govt should invest money & time by inviting academicians & professionals of International/national standard for suggestion on various critical projects to get scientific feedbacks based on facts & critical analysis. Such activities will bring about transparency and professionalism on the output of the project in actual implementation, since the complete strategic planning will be provided by the concerned consultant.

(3) Does the State Govt properly allocate who should be doing what roles and does each employee know where does he/she belongs on the chart of the entire state administrative system? - Converting all the state firms into central sponsored firms is not a positive idea toward global competition for development, but, Privatisation of govt firms under some rules of protecting the employees is the option to speed up the development of Manipur.

The failure of state sponsored firms is not because of the employees, but due to lack of effective strategic planning & management the board members of those firms/institutions. Thus, only via a change on the approach of the executive decisions made by higher officials of state govt ministries will only help resolving the problems.

(4) Why do private enterprises and national/multinational professional companies hesitate to invest in Manipur? - The state govt officials need to understand the simple management concept that Business means professionalism and the ability to make a Return on Investment (ROI).

The word 'business' may sound more of 'Jealousy' or 'money-minded' negative meaning in the society prevalent in Manipur or North-East. But the fact is that NO ORGANISATION or INSTITUTION CAN SURVIVE ON FREEBIES.

Even religious organisations & missionaries are also a kind of business organisation. They also need a strategic business planning to run and manage the whole system. NGOs [Non-government organisations) too are also a kind of business establishment.

Every organisation or association must have the complete organisational business plan (like who does what, what structure it is, flows of responsibilities, means of financing to run and sustain, future prediction and vision, etc).

Thus, if Manipur govt intends to invite businessmen and professionals firms to make new ventures in Manipur, then, officials of each state ministries should consult with various strategic consultants on those sectors how to do research and showcase the potentials to the managements of those professionals firms.

* Shanjoy Mairembam, a resident of Birmingham - UK, contributes to e-pao.net regularly. The writer can be contacted at shan_mairembam(at)smworld(dot)info . This article was webcasted on 19th November 2007.

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