Performance and Accountability

Over the last few weeks the war of words between Ethiopian government officials and their critics has been getting louder. From the Sudan border issue to the current drought politics, the government has been forced to talk and explain what it knows and does not. Regrettably, Aigaforum tried its best to forewarn those who lent us their ears about what was then unfolding story hoping the true story will come out in time. We did not succeed as we hoped in time. Though belated the true story has come out since. The Sudan border issue was explained by the premier and has since died down. The Deputy Premier has explained the drought issue and the public has now a better understanding.

Ethiopia is now part of the world community in earnest and has joined the global economy thanks to the EPRDF government relentless effort. Going forward it will be unwise to ignore the international community and international media. Timely and accurate information will go a long way to convince investors and the worldwide public to have faith in the Ethiopian government, the new Ethiopia and the institutions.

Electric rationing and cement shortage are clearly a result of bad planning. Perhaps also because of the absent of a robust private economy that can handle and sustain demand fluctuations.  The government needs to overhaul its methods of gathering economic indicators. With all the indicators of a growing economy and knowing the projected completion delay of the new hydro dams respected institutions should have been alarmed and plan ahead to avoid power disruption.

The real state market and government projects in the pipe should have given respected government institutions to plan ahead for cement shortages. To this day we hear people complaining about cement shortages and construction workers being laid off.

We also read one of the private investor building a cement factory has stopped construction. This will undoubtedly compound the cement shortage for time to come. Perhaps the country should ease its dependence on few individual investors to mitigate the cement shortage any longer. By our account the government has issued proclamation twice already to circumvent cement shortages. This shows whatever plan the government has may not be working.

We think it is time to revisit key institutions that are managing the basic economic engine of the country and evaluate their performance and accountability. What about you? Have your say! .[Aigaforum May 21, 2008]