How productive we are? A lesson from Tanzania (Commentary)

Kathmandu: The President of Tanzania John Magufuli cancelled a lavish independence-day celebration program and diverted the budget of $1.9 m to expanding a congested road and street cleaning, replacing the Independence Day celebrations with a National Day of Cleanliness during which he collected rubbish himself. Magufuli scaled down the inauguration of the new parliament, channelling 200 million shillings to the Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam to buy beds for patients.

He uses a car instead of a jet to travel around the country, and has banned foreign travel for officials, instead ordering them to visit rural areas to find out about problems there. Similarly, he orders civil-servants to bring trainers from outside if needed rather than sending a big delegation abroad for training, which saves a lot of cost.

These are few examples on how a visionary leader works for the sake of the country but contrary to this, most of the leaders of our country are taking the state treasury as a milking cow. They have been trying to create syndicate in the country and taking unnecessary benefits from state treasury. Nepali people had high hopes that the leaders would work genuinely for economic transformation of the country after the promulgation of new constitution, but in vain. Recently, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai formed a Naya Shakti (New Force) Party with much fanfare but the example of Tanzania shows that you should work for the sake of people to win their hearts rather than displaying to the public. He spent more than 15 million rupees, as per information given by the party, but critics believe that the cost is much more than what the party announced. The estimated cost for putting advertisement in media is almost 7 million for announcing the new party, which he could have utilized to construct sheds to many earthquake hit people, who are spending rainy nights in the open sky. This is just an example; all political parties and government authorities have been involved in such extravaganzas. For example, we spend tens of thousands of rupees celebrating World HIV and Aids Day, which could have spent for buying ARV for many HIV affected people, thus saving their lives.

The government of KP Oli was removed in nine months at the tune of foreign powers as he was trying to do something for the sake of the country. President of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba and Chairperson of CPN-Maoist (Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal toppled the government with the greed of reaching to the power by any means. Some of the budget related bills presented by the incumbent government also rejected by the house, which has raised moral question about the Maoist party, which was also in the Oli led government for nine months before stepping down recently. I am not favouring any government or political party, the only concern is that if we continue changing the government in less than a year, the country will never move towards stability and economic progress.

A report recently published by different media presented that Nepal has been paying more than four million rupees for a former VVIP and if we continue to change the guard in a short term, we will continue to pay such high expenses putting much pressure on the already ailing national economy. The facilities provided to the former VVIPs are not justifiable in the context that the national economy is being run by remittance sent by foreign job seekers, who have been sending money by working in various hazardous situations abroad.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has been trying to do something different than his predecessor, but he should learn a lesson from the Tanzanian President Magufuli and tighten the nuts in the state treasury and divert the money for public benefits. Many people in Nepal are still dying due to lack of basic health care and other essential services but the state resources are being spent on unnecessary sectors. A recent report said that most of the ministers take the goods which were purchased in their official residences once they leave the place after being out of the post. The government should put in place strict measures for checking such misuse of resources.

We have got political freedom in the country but we have not been able to get economic freedom as we have failed to get visionary leadership. Most of the leaders are only concerned about themselves and they are not working for the sake of country. In this context, the example of Tanzania could be an eye opener for the leaders of Nepal as spending hefty amount of money for luxuries of people or lavish celebrations during functions does not bring positive change in people’s lives rather small actions directed towards the public will bring positive changes in people’s lives.

This is not only the case with politicians; most of the I/NGOs are spending money brought in the name of poor people of the country have been spending the money for organizing different seminars in star hotels or organizing different conferences and trainings rather than delivering the services to the people. If we look at the actual spending of I/NGOs, less than 40 percent money goes to the really needy and targeted people while 60 percent goes for unproductive and administrative works. If all the money meant for Nepali people are being spent in an effective way it could change the face of the country. For example, the INGOs brought billions of rupees in the name of earthquake victims, which could have been enough to build houses for each earthquake victim but the money is being spent in administrative costs and other issues and real victims are living under the open skies. In this context, there is a real need of tightening the screws and making every sector accountable for the sake of the people.
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