Can the government spend as much money as they want?
Answer to this question should be a qualified 'YES'. However, many in the policymaking circle would tell you otherwise. They don't understand a thing about macro-economics and money theory!! - we would be inclined to aruge or they are just no-gooders, unfit to lead a nation which is starving for a bold economic plan similar to those taken by post-Independence Singapore or post-War Germany or Japan. Policy making is not about calculation, its about outlining a vision and making a plan to achieve that vision. If correct levers are pulled, money will always be there as long as it is not meant for stealing.
A sovereign national government can spend as much money as they want - it is true always, even though it sounds naive. And we mean it, keeping in mind that we are in a integrated world economy and also, ours is a floating currecny.
Do we really mean that, for example, the current government of Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed can spend as much money as they want in different projects and development initiatives? Can any serious person with sane brain say that? Any amount of money they want?
YES, the answer is a quailifed 'yes'.
First thing that should be quaried, why they would 'WANT' to spend the money. How do you justify your want? Do you want to balloon the budget just to steal some money, just like they have been ballooning the ADP figures years after years? If that is what is behind their want, than, certainly we can not argue in support of that. Also, the question could be asked in a other way. Are these policymakers responsible? If they are not, then we should drop the idea.
However, if they WANT to spend more money to achieve development - through a well planned out exceution plan, then we would like to argue in favour. MONEY should NEVER be a problem for a soverign government. It never was.
In other words, MONEY should never be a BOTTLENECK for a government - any government. Rather a real bottleneck for any governemnt is the capacity to execute an oversized spending plan.
Any budget or development plan should be limited by capacity.
In other words, if the government assume that they have the money, can they reasonably demonstrate that they can effectively use the money without wasting it? If the government can make their case that they can spend the money without unreasonable waste of any kind, arranging the money should never be a problem.
No, no, we are not saying that make a project plan and submit it to a donor organization. We are not saying that. That could very well be a source for a portion of the fund - if the government wants. But there are other options, too. More realistically, it will probably be a mix of both, at least at the beginning.
If a plan is made on a sound fundamentals, the internal mechanism should be there to support that project or projects. It does not matter what is the cost of the project. If some bureacrats or economist tell you otherwise, you should look into his portfolio and background, whether he really deserves to be regarded in a policymaking role - in a leadership role. At best, he or she do not understand the basics of the marcro economics or money theory or both. How? Well, we don't want to go into the technicalities here. But if you have ears and eyes, look around the world, in current times and in the past, you will find ample examples to support this. Or if you find a right expert, he or she could help you with the theory, too.
Before we finish, let us address another obvious issue. How much is our capacity to spend effectively? You would probably point your finger to the implementation rate of the current annual development plan. With that kind of implementation rate, which is certainly an indication of our capacity, what is the point of this big talk of bold vision? Aren't we just talking big with no touch with reality?
We would again humbly disagree. It is not the capacity that is lagging in the case of Bangladesh. It is the unwillingness of the corrupt elements of the burearcracy (read the stupid secretaries and joint/additional secretaries) who are hindering the process. They had an established setup of corruption to siphon off money from the ADP budget. But this year, they are too afraid to make full use of that corruption cycle. So, they effectively are trying to keep the bureacratic machine into hybernation during the rest of the time period of the caretaker government. That also helps the contractor and corrupt bigwigs in the private sectors. If things progress without the corruption, it will be very hard to bring the system back to where it is pre-1/11. If the secretariat starts giving work-orders through fair practice for two years, the system of corruption will break down. And also, a new breed of private sector entreprenuers will grow who will start refusing to fall back to pre-1/11 state.
So, these bunch of culprits in the secretariat and govt. machinery is giving the impression of in-capacity of the system. They are forcing the machine to stay in hybernation.
And what is our Fakhruddin-Mirza Aziz combination doing to break away? You have to remember, they themselves might be honest, they might be competent too, but they are not couregeous enough to breakout. Until few months back, they were part of the system. At the best, if they were not corrupt, they had to learn how to live with the system. Now, their new role is demanding to change their life-learned lesson which was the policy of co-existant. Their new role require to change that policy. The new policy has to be a policy of breakout, break the status-quo for the better. They so far could not master enough courage to hit hard enough to activate the system out of the corruption cycle. Or may be they are trying, but the is not long enough for this kind of difficult job.
We hope they will show the nation that they have some material within themselves.
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columinsts in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article.
Dear readers, also, if you thought the article was important enough so it should come under attention of the head of the government please forward the message to them. Email address for the Chief Advisor: feeedback@pmo.gov.bd or at http://www.cao.gov.bd/feedback/comments.php . The more of you forward it to them, the less will be the need to go back to street agitation. Use ICT to practice democracy. It is already proven that this government responds to the feedback.
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