Appraisal of govt projects improves  

The Finance State Minister in charge of General Duties Henry Musasizi has said only 10 percent of government projects had an appraisal process that would evaluate, asses and review the impact of a project on user communities. 

Speaking at the launch of the Integrated Bank of Projects, a single window for all stakeholders involved in the public investment management system, Mr Musasizi the system, which is expected to accelerate project appraisals, comes at a time when evaluation, assessment and review of projects has been low, which has been at just 10 percent. 

The system, he said, had already registered some successes with project uploads increasing to 37 percent since it was rolled out from 10 percent.   

“Before the introduction of Integrated Bank of Projects, only 10 percent of the projects used to complete the appraisal process. However, with the roll out of the system, I wish to note that this number has substantially increased to 37 percent of all uploaded projects,” he said, noting, the system has provided a faster and more effective project preparation and appraisal platform through streamlining all processes, templates and workflows. 

“This system has not only supported my Ministry [of Finance] in reducing time taken to prepare and appraise projects, but also enabled the sequencing and scheduling of project interventions in line with the strategic objectives,” he added.  

The system 

The Integrated Bank of Projects, which is a single window system for all stakeholders involved in public investment management system, also serves as a central repository of information about projects from preparation, budget formulation, execution, implementation and monitoring and evaluation to closure. 

Speaking at the same event, Ms Racheal K. Sebudde, the World Bank country senior economist for macroeconomics, trade and investment, said it is time government ensures that projects are well prepared, transparently tendered and delivered on time and within budget in order to deliver on planned returns. 

She said the policy and legal environment for managing public investments needs strengthening, noting that it is also important that “budgeting for projects is improved with allocation of resources for projects hinged on project life cycles as well as provide adequate resources for project preparation. 

“To promote the culture of investment maintenance, each project must have at its appraisal, the ex-ante appraisal forecasts of both the project’s capital and operational expenditures,” Ms Sebudde said, urging government to improve project implementation capacities, while at the same time strengthen and streamline monitoring and evaluation functions. 

The question of capacity, she said, is complex because it does not relate to one aspect, but rather a range of areas that include asking critical questions such; as is the project economically viable? Is this project the best options available to solve the problem we are trying to address and are there leakages or wastage?

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