NAN-H-44
BRISIN
By Harrison Arubu
Abuja, Nov. 10, 2016 (NAN) Some stakeholders have decried the continued delay in the implementation of Federal Government’s Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN) project by relevant government agencies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that BRISIN is a proposed integrated data and information infrastructure designed to provide management for the country’s data resources for effective socio-economic planning.
When operational, the system is expected to integrate the databases of all information and data gathering agencies in the country into a central server to be hosted by the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The project structure includes establishment and linking of documentation centres in all local government wards nationwide to the central data repository.
The stakeholders believe that BRISIN is the answer to the nation’s quest for reliable data and information to drive socio-economic planning and other national development endeavours.
However, almost 10 years after it was approved by the Federal Executive Council in 2007, the project is yet to takeoff.
NAN recalls that after BRISIN’s approval, the Federal Government through signed a service agreement with Dermo Impex Nigeria, an international critical information systems firm with headquarters in Italy, to build the project.
A 16-member implementation/technical committee, comprising relevant federal ministries, departments and agencies, was subsequently constituted to draw up the project implementation strategy and procedure.
Speaking with NAN in Abuja, Dr Anthony Uwa, Head of Implementation/Technical Committee of the project, blamed the inability of its take-off on bureaucratic bottlenecks, lack of coordination among implementing agencies and “vested interests’’.
Uwa alleged that some officials in the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (former National Planning Commission), coordinator of the project, were frustrating its commencement.
According to him, officials of the ministry are not keen on seeing BRISIN implemented.
Uwa, who is the Managing Director of Dermo Impex Nigeria, the project’s technical and solutions provider, specifically blamed political appointees in the ministry of sabotaging the project.
He said that execution of the pilot aspect of the BRISIN approved by the Federal Government to be conducted in the Federal Capital Territory had been frustrated by rivalry and acrimony among government officials.
He told NAN that the committee had long concluded its assignment, but some officials in the NPC and its parent ministry (Budget and National Planning), did not want the project to be implemented.
Uwa said: “Implementation of major national projects like BRISIN cannot begin without being officially launched by the president.
“This has not happened because the ministers who are supposed to properly brief the Vice President (who chairs the NPC) for the project to take off have not done so.
“Instead, they cook up excuses to rubbish the work of the committee as if the bureaucrats and experts that prepared it don’t know what they are doing.’’
He said he had written several letters to the current Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, requesting for official flag-off date for the project, to no avail.
“ Since the current government came in, there has been this issue of no money, but we said that that cannot stop the development of this nation.
“We are not asking government for money to fund BRISIN, because investors are everywhere seeking to invest in this project.
“We have even told them that we are going to fund the flag-off. So, I don’t even understand reason for the delay,’’ he said.
A stakeholder, Mr Ugo Jibuno, deplored the attitude of public servants involved in the implementation of the project, saying that such conduct had led to failure or abandonment of many laudable government projects in the past.
He condemned the intrigue among the government agencies handling the project, wondering the morals in frustrating a project, which two previous administrations, in their wisdom, had approved.
Jibuno, a media consultant, called for investigation into the roles of all concerned in the implementation of the project and sanction anyone found to have been working against its realisation.
An Information Technology expert, Mr Ahmed Jubrila, who commended the government for endorsing the project because of its “great benefits’’ to the country, suggested that the project should be executed with minimum role by public servants.
According to him, several instances like the case at hand have shown that public officers often frustrate projects that will not benefit them directly. They are generally selfish, never selfless.
The Ministry of Budget and National Planning declined reaction to the issue in spite of several efforts by NAN, including official request for such reaction, which was demanded by officials of the ministry.
However, an aide to one of the ministers in the ministry, who preferred anonymity, dismissed the allegations that the ministry and its officers, including the political appointees, were frustrating the implementation of BRISIN.
The aide told NAN that there was obvious attempt to make the current ministers in the ministry scapegoats, adding that the matter was not “that straightforward’’.
“This is almost 10 years since the project was initiated. Those trying to put the blame on the current ministers should be able to say why it had not taken off since 2007.
“This matter goes beyond the perception and intentions of individuals; they should keep individuals out of it,’’ he said.
He blamed the delay in the implementation of the project on procedural defects in the project structure and design as well as some credibility questions about the management of Dermo Impex.
The official said that several letters written to the company by the ministry seeking clarification on indentified grey areas were not replied, hence the need to put the project on hold.
He, however, stated that the current ministers had decided to review the service agreement and the project itself to correct all identified defects before any further action. (NAN)
ARU/OPI/OPI
Edited by Olisa Ifeajika