Ammon News - Randa Habib’s Corner

One of the biggest problems we face in Jordan is the lack of accountability to the public in the decision-making process.

People should not only be judged by their honesty, but also by their capability to take the right decisions. Those responsible for wrong decisions should be held accountable, whether in the private or public sector.

Unfortunately, until now, we keep paying the price for unwise decisions taken by some officials for bizarre reasons, which have deprived us of seizing opportunities to take better action, making damage control very costly.

One example is the Petra Conference for Nobel Laureates. At the beginning, people pinned high hopes on the event, hoping it will promote Jordan’s different aspects, but then things ended up in a financial fiasco.

Although it was jointly organised by Jordan and the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, it seems that the Kingdom had to shoulder all the financial burden, which amounted to nearly JD40 million from 2005 to 2008. This price is very high.

Also, some Israeli officials abused Jordan’s hospitality and exploited the forum to make controversial statements and attack Arab policies. Moreover, some participants took advantage of the conference and brought their friends or families to have a good time in Petra - all paid for by public funds and taxpayers’ money.

Two years ago, the wise decision to cancel this conference and save millions of dinars was taken. But how it was possible that nobody cared to know if the entire thing was feasible before going ahead with it?

Meanwhile, the recent government decision to sell or get rid of 25 per cent of its 19,000 vehicles tells us about the unnecessary burdens we have been shouldering over the years. It is another example of bad judgement that the current government is trying to tackle.

The list is long. The ambitious decision to build a compound for all government buildings is no longer on the agenda, as this government announced that no new buildings will be acquired.

What is urgently needed, written on paper, are guidelines and references for any new project, to avoid dragging the country into unnecessary and costly plans. There is also need to hold accountable those responsible for bad decisions.

* Jordan Times