IF the municipalities do not implement their projects and if the decisions taken by the municipal councils are not executed, then what is the use of these municipalities and councils? In his report about the latest rain disaster in Jeddah to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Emir of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal said the Jeddah Municipality had not implemented its rain projects. As we were told, all planning and engineering aspects of these projects were completed and their financing approved years ago. This raises the legitimate question: Why then have not these projects been implemented? Is it because of bureaucratic complications in financing or is it due to problems with the executing contractor? Or is this just mismanagement? If the report that about 790 decisions of the municipal councils all over the Kingdom were not implemented last year is true, do we have the courage to ask why have Jeddah, Riyadh, Tabuk and Buraidah drowned at the first sight of rain? These are puzzling questions that cannot be just dismissed by the pretext of administrative inefficiency. In my opinion the answer does not lie in replacing the officials after their slackness and ineptness have been proven beyond any doubt. They may have their excuses and justifications whether lame or sound. They should face the ax. Even if there was corruption in the municipalities, which is not a far cry, it should not cause the drowning of a number of major cities in the rain and floodwaters. I said earlier that the disaster was caused by the ignorance of the correct methods of city planning despite the fact that the municipalities are replete with experts in this field. Today I will suggest a thorough investigation by a neutral body into the hurdles before the execution of the floodwater projects, in addition to the corruption, mismanagement and ignorance of officials about city planning. The issue should not be draining the rainwater but how to benefit from it. We need to store these large quantities of water to use later for many purposes. There should also be supervisors to oversee and closely monitor the implementation of projects. The job of a project supervisor is one of the most important jobs so we should give it the due attention. Management professionals foresee any project as a "complete failure" even before it starts if it does not have a supervisor from the very beginning. The close monitoring of the execution of projects also entails accountability to hold anyone who obstructs the execution as responsible for his act and should not, therefore, escape punishment. The advanced countries have consolidated the principle of accountability and this is why they have succeeded and are way ahead of us. Actually we are the real owners of this principle since the times of Caliph Omar (may Allah be pleased with him). We should therefore restore this principle and use it to our advantage once again by carefully applying it in our projects. Good intentions alone are not enough. We should judge our officials by their accomplishments on the ground. We should immediately hold accountable any official who fails to do his job properly. It is not enough to sack the failing official or ask him to submit his resignation. When the officials realize that the severest punishment for them is dismissal or resignation, they will continue with their slackness. It is therefore imperative that all officials should know that they will be severely punished for any misconduct.
