The Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development has assured the Project Management Institute (PMI) Uganda, of recruiting their professionals for consultancy services to Government projects to ensure transparency and proper management of Government funded projects.
The revelation was made by the Minister of State for Finance, in charge of Planning, Amos Lugoloobi, who was Chief Guest during the 3rd National Project Management Conference, at Kampala Sheraton Hotel on Thursday.
Minister Lugoloobi said the Government is in dire need of local project managers in the areas of construction of Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), Road network and Electricity generation among others.
Citing the stalling construction works on Isimba Hydro Electricity Dam, Lugoloobi said contractors have let Government down by not completing works on time. He called on PMI to help the Government on project supervision and design.
“We have had many of these projects stall due to poor performance brought about by incompetence of contractors,” he said.
While briefing journalists at the conference, Minister Lugoloobi highlighted some of the challenges Government projects face to include; delays in project implementation, contract disputes and abandonment of projects among others.
He said the Government is currently strengthening monitoring and evaluation to deliver projects on time, pointing out that the Government has so far lost Ush 2 trillion in shoddy project works. He attributed these to corruption, where project supervisors connive with contractors, resulting in shoddy works.
“The Project Management Institute professionals will in addition help to build capacity in project management of Government funded projects. These project delays cannot be tolerated,” he added.
Irene Nattabi, PMI President, said the Institute is among the best in the East African Community (EAC) Region, offering advisory, training, mentoring and capacity building, where they trained over 200 professionals in capacity building last year.
“We are the 7th Chapter in Africa and 2nd Project Management Institute in East Africa, ” she said.
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