Permanent Secretaries,

Executive Directors of various institutions,

Chief Executive Officers,

Development Partners,

Planners in MDAs,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I take this opportunity to welcome you all to this high-level meeting to launch the Integrated Bank of Projects which is aimed at improving Public Investment in Uganda.

 The Integrated Bank of Projects is an online system, managed by the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, that will act as a central depository for all public projects and enable tracking of the development of projects.

 As you may recall, a diagnostic study on the assessment of Uganda’s Public Investment Management System (PIMS) was undertaken in 2017, and it recommended the development of an online based Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP) to act as a registry of data and information on all public investment projects and a tool for tracking their development through all stages of the project cycle.

The assessment further revealed that many countries have institutionalized a project bank in which projects that are expected to be beneficial to a country’s development are registered and are subsequently included in the PIP when resources for implementation are available.

Furthermore, the IBP was as a result of a Cabinet directive to Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (Cabinet Memorandum CT (2017) 118, on Strengthening Project Preparation, Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, recommended fast-tracking the establishment of an Integrated Bank of Projects accessible to all major stakeholders namely; Office of the President, Office of the Prime Minister, National Planning Authority and Ministries, Departments and Agencies to play their respective oversight roles.

MoFPED has therefore developed the first phase of the Integrated Bank of Projects with a team of consultants from Cambridge Resources International (CRI), which is expected to cover the project development phase of the PIMS cycle i.e. concept, profile, prefeasibility and feasibility stages. All MDAs will now be required to submit all new projects through the IBP.

The IBP is expected to achieve the following;

i. Act as a database of projects: the IBP will establish and store all information on public investment projects under preparation by all MDAs. The key output of the IBP is the Public Investment Plan (PIP) as well as a list of projects that have received all the required approvals and are ready for implementation (bankable projects).

ii. Enhance workflow management and procedural compliance software: IBP shall support the project cycle as established in the DC Guidelines and other relevant regulations. It shall prevent submission of projects to MoFPED, unless all the major requirements are met such as the Sector Working Group Minutes, Project Preparation Committee minutes among others.

iii. Ensure comprehensive mapping of projects information: the system will establish a publicly accessible, transparent and global picture of projects under development in Uganda on continuous basis.

iv. Promote accountability across Government: the IBP will facilitate mutual accountability between MoFPED, National Planning Authority (NPA), Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and other Public Institutions and Cooperating Partners.

v. Strengthen Public Investment Analysis and Planning: the system is an effective tool for helping Government analyze investment projects, determine priorities, identify overlaps, analyze expected benefits and costs, and analyze scope time and cost deviations; vi. Enhance measurement of results: the system will be capable of analyzing and measuring intended versus actual results of projects and enable greater accountability and management.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the World Bank and DFID, the team of consultants from Cambridge Resources International (CRI), the Steering Committee, and all the stakeholders that were involved and supported the development of the IBP.

It is therefore my profound gratitude to officially launch the Integrated Bank of Projects (IBP), which will play a critical role in strengthening the project appraisal process and overall Public Investment System (PIMS) Framework.