13
ROT AT THE TOP
T
he big news last month was the announcement of cost overruns in the construction of the new campus of the University of Macau on Hengqin Island. In April 2010, the government said the project would cost MOP5.8 billion (US$725,000). By last March, the price tag had reached MOP10.2 billion, according to a report from the Commission of Audit. One year later, who might be able to estimate the true cost? Be afraid. The audit commission said the overrun was the result of an initial budget that was “unrealistic” and the product of “inefficient expense control and management”. For years, we have called the government’s attention to this, without anyone in power listening. The biggest insult is not the cost overrun itself but the lame excuses presented by officials. Accountability is not a word familiar to Macau’s officials. The head of the Infrastructure Development Office said the blowout was the product of the bureau deliberately low-balling on the budget to “save public money”. I hope he comes back to explain himself. How can you save money by creating a budget that was unrealistic in the first place?
After the commission’s report was made public, the Secretary for Transport and Public Works reaffirmed that the maximum cost of the campus stood at MOP9.8 billion, as was set in 2011. The government and the Commission of Audit just had “different views” on which works to include in the budget. This is a colourful new variation of the “glass half empty, half full” dichotomy. Arithmetic and budgeting are no longer exact sciences for the government, but more like fortune telling. It is as likely that they will get it wrong as it is that they might get it right. In the end, Macau loses. The city needs a formula to eradicate these miscalculations and cost overruns in public works that have collectively cost us billions. It is unacceptable that the government learned nothing from similar situations in the past. If these cost overruns took place in a private company, which must be accountable to its shareholders, what would happen to those responsible for the mistakes? Governments are no different. Someone must be made accountable because they are responsible for an entire city, a responsibility that is immensely greater than the management of a single company.
Arithmetic and budgeting are no longer exact sciences for the government, but more like fortune telling. It is as likely that they will get it wrong as it is that they might get it right
FEBRUARY 2013