By Lekan Bilesanmi

Mr  Aminu Usman doubles as Solicitor General and chairman, Bureau on Due Process, Kebbi State. He explains,  in this interview,  how the Due Process Office is saving the state several hundreds of millions of naira that would have otherwise leaked out of government treasury.

The due process you chaired, what is it all about and how  has it been helping government?
Due process is a mechanism put in place to facilitate the procurement process in the state. This is to ensure that whatever is done on procurement  is done  in compliance with all the processes that have  been put in place, whether financial or administrative. And for this purpose, two laws were  enacted by the Kebbi State Assembly.

The first legislation is the one establishing the due process mechanism itself and the title of the legislation Kebbi State Bureau on Price Intelligence which is the Bureau I am chairing, and  is  responsible for ensuring compliance in the system and the budget in construction of works, goods and services in Kebbi State. So, the Bureau  essentially is to ensure that all ministries, departments and agencies of the government of Kebbi State in under taking procurement of works  and service comply with the law.

So, how has it helped the effective running of government?
Before the coming of the two legislations, the scenario could  be described as one in which,  for instance, decision could be taken to award a contract for the purchase of goods and materials for which  no appropriation has been made by government; so, when you pick the budget, you find  that there are no funds appropriated by the House of Assembly for that procurement.

So, what the due process mechanism is saying is that you cannot take a decision to procure works, goods and services without any enabling appropriation. With the due process mechanism in place, immediately a procurement decision is taken, we  need to ascertain that there is a budgetary provision for  it;  if there is no provision, there will be no procurement. So, in other words, we are looking for budget discipline.

Since you came in, what would you say are the milestones?
Milestone,  in a nut shell, to me, has been the fact that, now, you find that there is a tremendous improvement in terms  of matching procurement decision with the budget. There is a tremendous improvement in the performance of the budget in the sense that if the budget has been said to be implemented, it is not just that billions has been earmarked, you could see it on ground.

For example, in the health sector, when  government budgeted for the upgrading  of  hospitals, if you go round, you will find that many hospitals have been upgraded from primary health  centres to  general hospitals. There was an appropriation to construct from the scratch a 200-bed hospital on the road to Kalgo, you will see that edifice that was constructed for about N3. something billion.

Aminu Usman

So, those are the things that I can point to as an improvement in the implementation of the budget.  There are so many other examples to cite. In the education sector, more than 60 new schools have been built across the state and most of them will be coming on stream to admit new students  soon.

So what are the challenges you have come across in the process of carrying out the duties of your agency?
The challenges are enormous. First of all, there is paradigm shift because  business as usual has stopped and it is an uphill task for somebody to appreciate the position you are coming from that what you are doing is not against the interest of that person but in his interest. When you look at the due process mechanism,  in essence, you can reduce whatever it is doing to accountability.

All we are trying to do is to say that take X Y decision into a path that will lead to Z. They don’t want to take that fact into consideration but will rather continue doing things the way they know how. My argument has always been that the fact that you have been doing certain things for the past 20 years does not make it right. So, now, what we are saying is that, review what you have been doing in the past 20 years and look at it in the light of these factors and change to the new ways.

Now having spoken in the abstract, in real terms, we are saying that the fact that it is public service does not mean one should not be prudent. You need to tailor all your resources to what positive it is going to deliver to the people and therefore it is an up hill task not only within the confines of government but even out there with the people themselves for them to understand. It is difficult for them trying to understand that you want to enhance the delivery of public goods by utilising  public resources optimally and it is a serious challenge as far as we are concerned at the level of Due Process Office.

What can you objectively tell people about this administration especially for those who don’t know anything about this government?

When  you see a governor with a retinue of 100 hangers-on and they are going about in a jamboree distributing the largesse of public office, you tend to see more people singing the praises to high heaven  of  that kind of  governor. But when you come across a governor who says, ‘look,  for a moment, public office is public office, you have entrusted this office to me and what it means is that you want me to steer  the affairs of that office in a way that you want me to come back and account to you that the resources that was put in my trust was utilised for A B C D E F.

In my understanding, as the person you have given that trust, you did not ask me that I should take the public resources you entrusted to me to start sharing it as a largesse  to any person I like. Therefore I will not go around now to share it in any way I like. Rather I would want to be seen to channel public resources towards public good that I think constitutes  the essential requirement of that trust you have in me’.

So, if you come to Kebbi and you see that the governor does not have a very large retinue of hangers-on singing his praises to high heaven, I won’t be surprised because he doesn’t believe that he is in public office for him to start dishing out public resources to everybody. His belief which I subscribe to also is that being the governor of Kebbi State means that he is giving a trust and that entails that he should use public resources by providing utilities and make sure that hospitals, light ,and education are provided for the people.

I am saying that I stand to be contradicted that he has discharged the responsibility of that  trust by executing projects and programs that will translate into providing those public goods and services. The preponderance of people out there who might think things are going in the wrong direction, I think he is listening to them.

But the vocal minority  could go out there because he is not spending money on jamboree of pilgrimage of medical treatment, the governor himself does not go out of the state for medical treatment. If the governor has any medical problem, I stand to be contradicted, he does not go anywhere else, he consults the same doctors that are in the employ of government of Kebbi State.