Only 10 percent of govt projects are on schedule, NPA report says

Enforcement of publicly funded projects and related investment is underperforming, according to National Planning Authority (NPA).
The NPA assessment report further discloses laxity in the manner in which development projects, the majority of which are funded by international partners and financiers, are being executed.
For that,  NPA, therefore, concludes that implementation of government projects is poor based on the midterm review. 
Mr Hamis Mugendawala, the NPA manager in charge of policy, research, and innovation, while presenting the review report, said: “Out of the 69 core projects [assessed], only [seven], which translates to about 10 percent, are on schedule, with 25 completely off schedule.”
The findings had shown, he said, that government has been contracting debts before properly planning for the execution of the money borrowed yet it attracts cost right from disbursement. 
The report also noted that several ministries, departments, and agencies were rolling over projects, while others committed government to projects before proper planning.
Therefore, Mr Mugendawala noted, going forward, there would be no project funded by donors or loans that would go on before it has undergone a feasibility study to measure the return on investment 
All projects, he said, will be measured through prospective planning, where a certificate of compliance to the budget, which measures the variance between what is planned and what is invested, must be issued.
The report highlights several projects including the 77 kilometre Kampala-Jinja Expressway, a proposed four-lane toll highway linking Kampala with the city of Jinja, which have stalled due to the lengthy process of acquiring land and compensation of the project-affected persons. 
Mr Juvenal Muhumuza, the Ministry of Finance assistant commissioner of development assistance and regional cooperation, acknowledged that government had not effectively used borrowed money contracted to develop public investments due to failure to stick to the plan. 
“Over the years, we've noted that [several] development projects have not been performing, you start on a project [hoping to complete] in three years [but] you end up taking eight years. This means as a country you are losing economically” he said.
The revelations stemmed from a panel discussion at the JICA Chair held at Makerere University, Kampala on Tuesday where Mr Kato Hiroshi, a professor at the International University of Japan, noted that for Uganda to attain Vision 2040, which involves changing from a predominantly low income to a competitive upper middle-income country, needs to deal with different donors wisely and establish whether foreign aid emphasizes the country development 
[email protected]