(Published in Mtimes 07 12 2018)
Back in 2012, The World Bank’s Public Sector Performance-Development Policy Loan- (WB-DPL 2012) had highlighted that “...the fact that delays often occur in the implementation of planned public investment projects can be seen in the low levels of actual expenditure of the capital budget. This highlights not only that financial resources are inadequate but also that there is inadequate institutional and human capacity to implement these infrastructure projects in the short term.” Capital spending has been averaging a dismal 2.6% of GDP annually under the previous regime.
With the new regime the situation has worsened. For the third year running, budgetary capital expenditures are less than 2% (1.7%,1.9%, and 1.7%), thus even worse than the previous regime. There has been persistent substantial under-execution of investment spending at all levels of government. Public investment has been stagnating at around Rs19 billion annually for several years. For e.g In 2017, public investment was forecast by Statistics Mauritius to grow sizeably by 20.2% in real terms, to an amount of Rs 23.7 billion, or 5.1% of GDP. In the estimated outturn for 2017, public investment in fact fell by 3.0%, in real terms, to a lower value of Rs 18.8 billion, and to a smaller ratio of 4.1% of GDP. As for 2018, the prospect of a big push in public investments is not borne out by the current trend in Government capital spending, which accounts for about half of public sector investments. As at October 2018, only Rs 1.2 billion of the Rs 11.4 billion earmarked in budget 2018-19 have been spent, or only about 11%, reflecting a major shortfall in Government capital spending. Thus, year after year, our money is not being properly utilised.
Over the years, various agencies have drawn attention to the weaknesses of the public sector in delivering quality, cost-effective and timely services, and in project implementation. The Ministry of Finance has tried to take on the responsibility of the implementation and monitoring of planned public investment projects through it its Project Monitoring Unit but lacking the competence and skills and being more apt at numbers crunching, they have failed to deliver on the priority projects as the figures do show.
A Project Monitoring & Delivery Unit, under the direct responsibility of the PMO- a multi-disciplinary unit comprising engineers, accountants, architects and economists- has better prospects. Such “Delivery units” have been set up in other countries. The first “Delivery Unit” – the Prime Minister's Delivery Unit - was established in June 2001 in the United Kingdom during the second term of office of Mr Tony Blair. The mission of the Unit was to support the Prime Minister on the delivery of public services through the monitoring of progress on, and strengthening capacity to deliver on, key Government priorities / specific targets, e.g. reducing waiting time in health, reducing crime rate, improving scores in schools. The Unit reported to the Prime Minister through the Head of the Civil Service (the Cabinet Secretary) and the focus was on “delivering results”. The dilemma of the Unit was not so much as to “what” should be done, rather it was “How” should things be done. Several countries have adapted and refined the concept of “Delivery Units” to suit their own institutional circumstances and country context, e.g. Australia, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Tanzania. The interesting feature remains that in, all circumstances, the Unit is located at the “centre of Government” (President Office or Prime Minister’s Office). Conceptually, the objective of all the “Delivery Units” is to galvanise resources to improve delivery of those public services that matter most to citizens in terms of quality, cost and time.
I am sure that such a unit will be a more strengthened one with “mandate and authority” and equipped with the skills to better grasp the complexities of project management -- including a proper evaluation of costs, funding options and risks and tendering procedures which are often the cause of most cost overruns and delays -- to ensure “deliverology” on our priority capital projects.
