Topic: Governments and their irrelevant projects just to steal public funds - page 4. (Read 659 times)

I think you might be talking about the new ZiG (Zimbabwe Gold) currency... right?  Governments will pull any trick out of the hat to protect their power and also to deceive the public.

You can re-brand currencies or create new currencies, but if you do not fix the corrupt government that are the heart of the problem, then you will never have a good and stable economy. 

Use your vote to get rid of corrupt governments.

The post might be more beneficial in the Nigeria local board but some members might also want to know about the economic situation of other countries. Personally, international news attracts me because it helps me to make a comparison with the situation in my country. One of the pitfalls of the original post is that it didn't relate his position to a particular country keeping readers in the dark. Now members are put in a condition where they have to figure out the country he was referring to.

Anyway the redesigning of the Naira not was politically and corruption motivated. Some persons in power didn't want the present president of Nigeria Bola Tinubu to win the election so they wanted to make the currency scarce which would frustrate the ability of his party to buy votes. Fortunately, he had access to other currencies and connections in the Central Bank which aided him in winning the elections.

A special investigation into the Naira redesign showed that it was not the former president Muhamadu Buhari who approved the policy but his powerful nephew and aide Sabiu Tunde. He corroborated with the former CBN governor to siphon government funds through the printing and minting contract and misappropriation of the old notes. It was reported that the contract for the production of the currency was inflated and there was no accurate account of how some of the old were destroyed.

Although there are some benefits of redesigning a country's currency for a country that is going through so many economic problems spending close to $60m on such a project was ill-planned.

My thoughts too although, I think OP don’t want a more local view to the thread but rather, a global take on this, a wholistic approach based on what is obtainable everywhere in the world to relate with how its been done in his or her country and what effects is supposed to have.

A very nice argument mate, of course it’s constitutional and these ought yo be done without having so much of a negative impact on the country. Meanwhile, do developing nations and the underdeveloped country really need this? I mean, it takes a lot of money on expenditure and hardly any profit in return.
Although, this be the case when, it’s not done gradually and calls for an immediate flushing of the old currency.

You know that those things happen if the people seated in the government are corrupt? Governments are not made to steal funds but the people seated there are the ones who do that. Its strategies shouldn't be done in a way to get more money, but to help the public. It just so happens that they want to pocket in return which is evil in every aspect.

What made you post something like this OP? Is it because of the corruption in your country?

OP you should pay attention to what this user has said.
This conversation should take place in your local board where your colleagues from the same country but different provinces will have real life instances of elephants projects made to steal public funds and how the ordinary citizens is exposing them and forcing them to do the right thing. We can't just assume that this is rampant worldwide.

The redesigned of the Nigerian Currency was purely for political reason. It was because the incumbent president or the government as of that time does not want the opposition and some politicians to spend excess money on the electorates. Government does not really get money from the projects they carry out but some they got but the contractors are the once stealing the project money from different ways. Either by inflating the project or construct substandard project toe the public to use while they steal all the money to their pockets. Government stealing is from the construction and not the salarys.

Seriously, people involved in crypto should be the last ones talking about this!
The whole industry is filled with projects that eat billions in users' money just one fancy whitepaper and some graphs and deliver just a cheap useless copy that promised to cure cancer, end world famine and didn't even manage to get listed on an exchange without paying another bribe!

This is one of those moments when this ecosystem whos what's actually wrong in a corrupt government, it's the people that make it, just as the same type of people are ruining cryto and bankrupting investors.

He seems bittered the way he talked and presented this issue on this board.Invariably when the new designed currency is Also not in circulation,it's also serves as a bad sign.They didn't really intend to rebrand the currency for a positive impact,but initially for their own selfish interest and manipulations.
The designed currency instead resulted a into a cash shortage and several economic challenges that they experienced.According to the CBN,the purpose of the currency design was to promote and improve security,cash security against financial losess.Governments usually have thier way to oppress citizens.

Rebranding of currency designs can be acceptable if the country is trying to fight currency hording, but corrupt politicians can suddenly decide to change currency design to steal from the public purse and enrich themselves. When they redesigned the naira, I know that it brought severe hardship to the masses, because they banned the old currency while the new design where nowhere to be seen, a lot of people died while looking for the new designed notes. They eventually unbanned the old notes and funny enough we're still using the old notes till date, so you're left to wonder about what actually transpired in that project. A corrupt government can embezzle public funds in the name of proving a better life for it's citizens, in the end the same masses will become worse off than when they started their scam projects.

This type of thing is not only prominent in Nigeria. I am not sure if OP is nigerian but it also sounded relatable to me and I am from Asia. We have always wondered why the government seemed to prioritize doing useless things over solving actual problems.

They would be renaming a local place or “improving” a tourist spot for no reason at all. It does not improve nor change anything in our economy so we don’t know why they do it. There is a saying in my country that says “you know election is near when they are fixing roads that do not need fixing”  

There are so much things going on behind the scenes that honestly who knows anymore what the government is doing.

Yes this is very much common and one of the highest level of corruption which goes unquestioned and to give you an example wherein roads are laid and dug up within few days for installing some pipelines then the process repeats with different reasons. I think this mostly happens with underdeveloped and developing nations because I had been to Dubai and was really amazed to see how things work there as there isn't much room left for corruption.

Agreed.  I have no idea what OP is talking about exactly, and as is typical for members here, very little details are supplied as to what's supposed to be the topic.  I initially thought this might be about the US government and all of their excess spending on idiotic shit, but apparently not.  That's fine, too since government waste has been a contentious subject likely since the beginning of society and governments.

Rebrand their traditional (fiat) currencies with changes in graphic design, do you have any example?

I know governments and central banks can not be trusted and I know countries like Venezuela wanted to launch their digital currency years ago like Peso, but failed to be accepted by other countries and IMF.

But I did not know countries that make changes in logos of their national fiat currency. If you can give me examples, I appreciate it.
https://www.financemagnates.com/cryptocurrency/news/venezuela-to-launch-digital-bolivar-in-october/
https://www.coindesk.com/business/2020/11/11/venezuelas-bitcoin-story-puts-it-in-a-category-of-one/
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/central-bank-digital-currency-evolution-in-2023-from-investigation-to-preparation/

OP, the design and refacing of a countries currency has been a habitual method that is even constitutional, for some countries is after a decade, some after two decades. There are several reasons why a country redesigns their currency note, it can be for a facelift, it can be to discouraged people that have looted the currency and hoarded it for a very long time, it can as well to be to fight against counterfeit notes that might be out there in circulation.  

What gives a countries currency value, is not redesigning of the currency, it is the economic viability of that country. However i don't see redesigning of a countries currency as a valueless project, I see it as a constitutional duty that is done procedurally to keep the countries bill in check.  Currently in ENGLAND they are gradually facing of the the British pounds that carries the image of late QUEEN ELIZABETH and replacing it with the image of KING CHARLES, because they laws allows that.

For me OP, it is not every action that your government takes that you have to criticize, sometimes you just have to look at the policies that government are presenting critically before you start criticizing.

wow, wait. I just found out that this is the flow of the process of how this project makes money, especially when it comes to changes in money bills, because here in our country last year there were like 2 changes in bills graphic designs, so that means nothing they spend here except for what they pay to the employees who makes the bills design, then they will earn a large amount once it is approved and implemented in the economy. If that is what the government department of finance and the central bank are doing, they will get a lot of money, but just like what others have in mind, what is the bearing in the economy of having proper and changes in the bills design?because there seems to be no change in its value....

Honestly, I don't understand what that graphic design edits the op's talking about. Perhaps it's about particular events in a specific country. In that case, sources that provide additional information would be appreciated.
In my country, corruption is a major issue, but there are also strong attempts to fight it, with a lot of arrests and criminal investigations happening lately.
We also kind of have systems that help make the processes transparent, and sometimes public outcry helps against shady decisions.

Rebranding a currency can somehow help the nation but where it's bad is when the old currency is not entirely wipe away while coupling with the new currency. Let say for instances, when there is serious looting in the country and government thinks and suspected there is lack of currency circulation then they have to rebrand their currency and make old currency obsolete where it can't be used and accepted any longer. Is just like what happened to Nigeria and yet the old currency are still in circulation, meaning the rebranding was for a fake and gamed the citizens were they are selling the old currency for cheaper rate in order to get rid away and yet it wasn't, with this we can say it's waste of resources and a failure to the country.

The government launch a design project > their employee joins the event > the government voted their employee to win > the winners get the prize from Ministry of Finance > the employee distribute the reward to the government.

The government didn't spend anything, but they can make money from their own project.

Should I advise you? This kind of discussion should be written in your local thread for effective discussion. Though I don't know your country, nevertheless, you sound like a typical Nigerian. What you wrote will be strange to many people, even to those people living in a poor country because the corruption allegation may not be so obvious/pronounced as much as you alleged in their countries.

Regardless, the two points I can bring out from your allegation are; 1. The change of the currency design and 2. The stealing of infrastructure money.

For the first part, you are so wrong, and it shows that you do not understand economics and national security. Without writing stories or mincing words, just research how many times the USA and some other top countries have changed the face of their currencies in the past 2 decades. You should also research the reasons for that so that you will be rightly enlightened about this.

It is a very good move and a standard international measure if you must know, which reduces counterfeiting, and hoarding, enhances security, and ensures the right monetary policies by ensuring the notes in circulation are truly what the economy needs among others.

As for the second part, if the country leaders are corrupt, of course, infrastructure contracts are the avenue they can hide under to steal. They will inflate the cost in connivance with the contractors. This is a serious problem in corrupt countries.

What would make a government to rebrand their traditional currencies just to edit some graphic designs with excessive amounts of money bills involved to execute such project that doe not mean to brings more values to the currency neither does it boost the economy level of the nation?

Meanwhile such is been an undeveloped country which the implemented bill for such valueless project is big enough to create infrastructures with the potentials of building the masses with valuable skills and otherwise a national financial revenue.

Do we assume it is still one of the money laundering strategies that the government intentionally creates loopholes in other to steal the public funds? Because even after the implementations and execution of Such projects, the same governments clamours that the nation has run out of funds after giving accounts of those irrelevant executed projects.