Manual on public investment management launched

Finance and Planning Minister Dr Philip Mpango said the operational manual intends to assist the government in selecting, implementing and evaluating public investments and promoting social-economic well-being postulated in the national development framework to attain a middle-income economy by 2020

Already the government has unveiled the national development blueprint with targeted investment of over Sh100 trillion to be implemented from 2016/17 through 2020/21.

The plan, which has already been approved by the National Assembly, aims to boost industrialization and is a new indicator of expenditure plans and priority areas of President John Magufuli’s administration.

Launching the project tracking system, Dr Mpango said it outlines a set of important technical approaches and tools for economic, financial and social analyses of projects.

The system is designed to enhance efficiency, bring transparency, boost investor confidence, and improve the communication between the industry and the government.

“There have been weaknesses that are plaguing our public investment management framework. Shortage of adequately designed and appraised bankable projects, inappropriate handling of projects, incomplete and severely delayed projects, procurement processes that are easily undermined by corrupt practices and cost over-runs,” the minister said.

He explained that the shortcomings have resulted in a significant number of wasteful ‘white elephant’ projects and, more tragically, have led to failure to provide much needed quality public services to the people.

According to the minister, the end-users of the manual are technocrats who prepare proposals for development projects in central and local governments.

Others are potential Public-Private Partnership investors, parliamentarians, development partners, financial analysts, civil society organizations and the general public.

In its move to push forward the industrialization agenda, President Magufuli’s administration has set aside an unprecedented Sh8.7trillion, equivalent to 40 per cent of the national budget, for development budget in the next financial year.

The new development budget is an additional 13 per cent from the current 27 per cent.

Acting Executive Secretary of the Planning Commission Florence Mwanri said the commission faced stumbling blocks in generating funds to implement development projects under the first national development plan.

“It will help to identify and monitor funds allocation and spending … the majority projects are not well prepared, yet they are not effectively monitored after their implementation,” she said.

The meeting held in Dodoma yesterday was also attended by representatives of development partners - the World Bank, UNDP and JICA.

It is expected the planning commission will however develop a database which will help the government and development partners to follow-up progress of various projects across the country.