It is only a few days before the regular Cabinet reshuffle takes place and a new government is sworn in. Let us have a look at the performance of the outgoing Cabinet to see whether it indeed managed to do what was required of it during its four years in office. We must first admit the outgoing government has faced some difficult problems on the domestic front over the past years. There were the health and environmental problems exemplified by the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever and mad cow disease. There were educational problems because of very limited admissions to universities, which are unable to give places to the large number of students who seek them. There were also problems with substandard rented school buildings. There were economic problems because of the very high rate of unemployment and job cuts.
There were cultural problems with Saudis accused of being involved in terrorism and religious extremism which led to the West suspending, or severely curtailing, activities of various legitimate Islamic charitable organizations. The outgoing government sought to address all these and other problems by adopting measures which were prompt but temporary solutions. Although the measures adopted kept the country from crises with unforeseen repercussions, there were no long-term policies or strategies to lead to lasting solutions for chronic problems or to prevent the same problems from happening again. The reason for these shortcomings has been that some ministers who served for two consecutive terms were largely involved in running the day-to-day affairs of their ministries without giving much attention to long-term planning.
To be fair, some sort of planning did take place in a number of ministries which sought to improve performance as well as modernize and enhance their operations. Again, the same ministries failed to tie long-term plans to the funds they expect to receive from the state budget. The result has been a widening gap between planning and implementation.
The ministers must nonetheless be thanked for their efforts during their terms in office. We must admit they made great efforts but at the same time we hope that the new Cabinet will focus more closely on the challenges facing the country. This should be done by long-term planning that reflects the country’s real economic and social needs and responds to international developments.
Arab News From the Local Press 30 April 2003
