ADMINISTRATIE PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC CORPORATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMEMT CORPORATION (ADC) IN CROSS RIVER STATE.
ADMINISTRATIE PROBLEMS OF PUBLIC CORPORATIONS: A CASE STUDY OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMEMT CORPORATION (ADC) IN CROSS RIVER STATE.
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Date
1983-08
Authors
EKANEM, BONIFACE SYLVESTER
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Abstract
Modern Economists hold the view that there are
two major approaches to the problem of economic
development. One is the so-called "Marxist-Lenist"
or the "Socialist1' approach which calls for direct
intervention of the state in the production and
distribution processes. The other, Adam Smith and
others or "Capitalist" approach which sees the role of
the public sector as limited to the provision of a
congenial economic and political atmosphere in which
production can take place. This approach rests on the
assumption that private entrepreneurs are capable of
responding to economic incentives. There is also an
ideological basis for the two approaches but this is
not the subject of this study.
Nigeria is a mixed economy, and our National
Constitution is unmistaken about our economic objective.
The concept of planned, development and increasing state
participation in economic activities has been the corner
stone of our National, policy ever since independence
twenty-three years ago. The growth of public
enterprises in diverse fields of our national endeavour
is conceived as one of the major instruments for the
transformation of our backward economy into self
sustaining and progressive one, and for the preservation
of social equilibrium and political stability.
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A country or state benefits a great deal by the
public sector enterprises only when they are managed
efficiently. It also loses a great deal, on the other
hand, if scarce financial resources and scarce
managerial talent are wasted. If the continued growth
of these enterprises in the key sectors of our economy
is necessary for the future well-being, their failure
in the present can therefore mean disaster to our
country or state, and no segment, including the private
sector of our economy, can avoid the terrible impact
of such a failure. Hence the importance of achieving
maximum efficiency in the management of these
enterprises, and consequently of creating the necessary
managerial framework and providing an adequate flow
of competent managers for these enterprises, should
be obvious.
Huge sums of money have been invested in public
sector projects in our country but unfortunately their
performance is far from satisfacotry. The poor
performance of some of these enterprises can be
attributed to inadequate assessment of demand, but most
of them could run efficiently and earn sizeable
profits if a proper diagnosis of the problems of these
organisations could, be carried out, the constraints
identified and necessary remedy, applied to them.
This study is our humble effort to inquire into
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the administration of statutory corporations in the
Cross River State and to identify the key variables
that constitute their performance problems. The
central piece of this study or inquiry is the Cross
River State Agricultural Development Corporation (ADC).
The author has chosen the Agricultural Development
Corporation (ADC) among the other corporations in
the Cross River State because that establishment
happens to be the oldest corporation inherited by the
Cross River State Government from the defunct Eastern
Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC), Enugu, through
the States (Creation and Transitional)Decree of 1967
which the Cross River State, along with other
Nigerian States, were created by the Gowon Administration
As a pioneer Corporation in the Cross River
State, it is only normal that the ADC should perform
well to be able to generate enough profits for
capital development in other fields of the State's
economic endeavor. Besides, the ADC is expected to
be the pace-setter for other public corporations in
the state to find their feet. But for obvious reasons,
as this study will reveal, the Agricultural Development
Corporation has not been able to achieve its objectives.
Since after the civil war, the ADC has been an
economic disaster. For months on end, it could hardly
find enough money to pay salaries and wages to its
eight thousand employees. Production was almost nill.
Till this day the ADC is heavily indebted to commercial
banks in the state to the tune of N24 million. For
reasons sometimes beyond its control, the rubber in
the Estates could not be properly tapped. The palm
fruits were yielding but could not be harvested
although the ADC had hundreds of people who were
employed to harvest these fruits. This was the .
bleak situation in the ADC when the present administration
took office in 1979. Initially, the State
Government, perhaps as a short term measure, advanced
substantial amounts of money in a futile effort to
revive the corporation. What happened instead was
that the more money Government sub-vented to the ADC
the more it sank into the administrative and economic
abyss.
As was to be expected, the tragedy of the ADC
produced its own crop of critics who sought to lay the
blame for the disastrous situation on the shoulders
of the State Government. The Cross River State
-Government was accused of everything from incompetence
to being insensitive to the plight of the over eight
thousand workers of the corporation. Most often, the
critics did not mention the fact that Governor Isong's
administration was not responsible for the ADC disaster.
When the present administration took office in
1979, it found that the problems of the ADC had been
accumulating since 1969. While the critics were busy accusing
the State Government of incompetence, the
State Government was busy trying various programmes
and policies aimed at revitalizing the ADC. The Cross
River State Government set up a cabinet committee to
take a hard look at the ADC and recommend ways of
revitalizing the corporation. The Cross River State
Government also decided to stop giving subvention to
the Corporation mainly because the financial resources
of the Government were dwindling and also because there
had been no improvement in the conditions of the ADC
despite previous Government subventions.
The adoption of the panel report by the Cross
River State Government involved a rethinking of the
fundamental philosophy behind the establishment of the
ADC. Rather than allow the corporation to continue
to be a social charity organization offering employment
to thousands of unproductive men and women, the State
Government is still at a loss of what to do in order
to transform the ADC into the profit making organization.
This study, therefore,- is the author's effort
to critically analyze the administrative problems of
the ADC and suggest possible lasting solution to them.
In this study, the words, parastatals, parastatal
organizations, public corporations, State-owned
companies, public enterprises or statutory corporations.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Postgraduate School, Ahmadu
Bello University, impartial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Public
Administration (MPA).
Department of Public Administration
Institute of Administration
Ahmadu Bello University
Zaria
AUGUST, 1983.
Keywords
ADMINISTRATIE,, PROBLEMS,, PUBLIC CORPORATIONS,, AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMEMT,, CROSS RIVER STATE..