Govt comes up with repository to effectively manage public investments

To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of managing public investments, the government through the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has launched the Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP) system. 

The IBP system launched on Monday in Kampala has been designed to store information on all public projects from inception, execution monitoring and evaluation to closure. 

The finance ministry said the initiation of the system that has been rolled out by the Minister of State for General Duties Henry Musasizi started in 2015. With this system in place, Musasizi said the number of projects completing the appraisal process with the rollout of IBP has increased from 10% to 37%.

“The system has not only supported my ministry in reducing the time taken to prepare & appraise projects but also enabled the sequencing & scheduling of project interventions in line with the strategic objectives of Govt in the medium to long term,” he said.

The minister further highlighted that an eight-day roll-out exercise to all the key Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) has been programmed from 6th to 20th June 2023.

The rollout will create awareness, build capacity and train Public Investment Management Systems (PIMS) users on the upgraded system at the Ministry of Finance internal training facility at Crested Towers.

Additionally, Musasizi stated that this system is re-developed to deal with delays in project management, analysis, execution, cost overrun, and inefficiencies and to strengthen the capacity of the project cycle.

Ramathan Ggoobi, the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury at the finance ministry, represented by Ag. Commissioner of Economic Development Policy and Research, Joseph Enyimu, explained that the IBP has improved accountability, and transparency in project preparation and management by reducing time spent in project preparation, submission and information loss.

“Public Investments support the delivery of key public services and infrastructure that connects citizens and firms to economic opportunities whose exploitation serves as a catalyst for economic growth,” he said.

Some of the roles of the IBP system are to:

• Provide faster and easier reporting on projects that facilitate informed decision-making and policy recommendation by all PIMS stakeholders.
• Simplify project preparation and management through the provision of standardized tools that enable project developers and managers across the government to undertake their respective responsibilities effectively.
• Provide robust monitoring and evaluation reporting which enables the identification of bottlenecks and measures to improve project performance.
• Ensure transparency and accountability in project preparation and management given that all workflows and decisions are undertaken online.
• Provide sufficient storage and online access to historical project records throughout the project cycle to all users.
• Provide endpoints for linkage with other Public Finance Management (PFM) Systems including Program Budgeting System (PBS), Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), Aid Management Platform (AMP), National Development Plan Monitoring and Evaluation (NDP M&E) System and Electronic Government Procurement to enable sharing of project related information.
• Enable the generation of customized project information spreadsheets by users using existing data in the system.

The Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP) system was developed using open-source standards which are free of licensing and other recurrent costs. Phase one of the IBP covered the project identification and pre-investment stages of the project life-cycle. Phase two covers project implementation, monitoring and evaluation.