The Government of Kenyan recently established the Public Investment Management (PIM) unit at the National Treasury that will oversee the selection, budgeting and management of development projects and public-private partnerships (PPPs).
In addition, the unit will enhance its efforts to curb duplication of projects that for long have served as conduits of corruption. The move also considers the government efforts at increasing efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability in public spending.
Over the years, the overlapping programs within the government have caused loss and mismanagement of revenues allocated for development projects. The unit will enable efficient identification and implementation of priority social and investment projects aimed at improving quality of life for Kenyans.
According to the 2019 draft Budget Policy Statement by the National treasury, the PIM unit shall independently review large projects before they are included in the budget. This will ensure that priority projects are selected and implemented on time and within budget.
In particular, the implementation of PIM regulations under the Public Finance Act will streamline the initiation, execution and delivery of public investment projects. The PIM regulations, as a minimum, will also require that all projects ideas/concepts are subjected to the same quality assurance processes set out in the guidelines, thus ensuring all projects selected for funding have undergone an appraisal.
The unit is also expected to reduce runaway projects costs, a phenomenon that has characterized many development projects across the country.
The reduction in the duplication of projects and cutting miss-spending within the government will save resources required to support fiscal consolidation program. This will reduce the fiscal deficit to 3.0% of GDP by 2022.
