The satisfactory quality of the portfolio

On June 27, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning with the African Development Bank (AfDB) organized a four-day dialogue workshop, from June 27 to 30. The latter was an opportunity for the AfDB to listen, in order to better understand the needs and problems related to the implementation of projects and programs for which the government has the responsibility.

On June 27, the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning with the African Development Bank (AfDB) organized a four-day dialogue workshop, from June 27 to 30. The latter was an opportunity for the AfDB to listen, in order to better understand the needs and problems related to the implementation of projects and programs for which the government is responsible.

The workshop initially focused on the review of the performance of the portfolio of projects in Burundi. Various coordinators of AfDB-funded projects, directors and general managers and senior executives of the superstructure took part in this workshop. The latter presented the progress of their projects in the fields of agriculture, education, energy and transport.

This workshop is important for the consolidation of cooperation between the Republic of Burundi and the African Development Bank, because in addition to assessing the quality and performance of the portfolio, it provides an opportunity to draw lessons learned and finally to review the portfolio performance improvement plan in the light of the recommendations resulting from the exchanges.

“This is an important exercise for both the Bank and the Government in order to better understand the status of implementation of our projects and programs and agree on actions aimed at ensuring their satisfactory implementation for the benefit of the Burundian population,” said Mr. Pascal Yambiline, AfDB Country Manager in Burundi.

The African Development Bank is hard at work

Despite the various crises that the world is going through, including Burundi, it is clear that the Government’s operations, co-financed with the Bank, are doing well and are maintaining their performance, said the AfDB country manager in Burundi.

“In the midst of the pandemic, two operations relating to access to energy first Phase for an amount of 27 million dollars and support for the development of agricultural and livestock value chains for a amount of 20 million US dollars or a total of 47 million US dollars were approved respectively in 2020 and 2021”.

For the year 2022, he adds, two public sector operations are planned to be submitted to the Bank’s Board of Directors, namely the Agro-Pastoral Entrepreneurship Project Professional Development of Youth and Women, and the Facility agricultural production in Burundi, this within the framework of the African Emergency Food Production Facility, as well as a private sector operation, in particular the transaction guarantee facility for the benefit of a local bank.

“We are at your side to support you”

The African Development Bank, by supporting the Government’s efforts, aims to improve the living conditions of the Burundian population. The Bank’s current portfolio in Burundi includes 15 projects for a total commitment of US$300 million, or regarding 607 billion Burundian francs.

“We are at your side to support energy production and transport infrastructure, but also to facilitate access to this energy for the entire population. We support the internal and external opening up of Burundi through support for the transport sector, in particular road transport, incomplete transport and we thank you for the Government’s willingness to associate the Bank with the railway component which will provide the country with a complete multimodal transport system with a significant impact in terms of reducing transport costs and times and therefore greater economic productivity for the country. »

However, the ADB should regularly take stock of the impact of the implementation of portfolio projects on the beneficiary population and also on the mobilization of the country’s resources, without forgetting to examine the persistent difficulties and the challenges to be met. On these last points and to give you a few examples by way of illustration, difficulties persist at the level of certain projects, faced with significant delays in their implementation: “In view of the high expectations of the populations for these projects, we we must do better to speed up their execution”

From June 28 to 30, it was the turn of capacity building sessions for heads of project management units and ministry officials. With a view to improving the quality of operations, the workshop focused on building institutional and fiduciary clinical capacities for stakeholders in the implementation of operations co-financed by the bank in Burundi.

“The objective of the Clinics’ approach is to contribute to improving performance in the implementation of projects and programs”, explained the Director General of Planning within the Ministry in charge of Finance, Annociate Nshimirimana. .

Challenges abound

The Director General during these activities raised some challenges in project management, including the low disbursement rate; ineligible expenses that the Government is obliged to reimburse; projects closing the financial year, but which have not submitted the audit reports; projects that did not submit supporting documents on time; projects whose implementation is delayed due to a lack of knowledge of procurement procedures; projects that fail to submit financial monitoring reports.

“To this end, we invite you to consider this workshop as a framework for sharing experience, exchanges, critical analysis, information and mutual enrichment with a view to strengthening the institutional capacities of project managers and of all stakeholders in the implementation of AfDB-funded project activities,” said Annociate Nshimirimana.

It should be noted that its objective is to encourage exchanges between AfDB Experts and Burundian Experts in order to improve the quality of files which are submitted for the prior opinion of the Bank’s services and thus considerably reduce response times. one side as the other.

The AfDB offers some useful tips

The project must: check the contract before its approval; check the conformity of the amount of the contract as well as the distribution by currency and by donors before approving in SAP; ensure that the exchange rate is indicated in case of different currencies of payment; ensure deliverables are clearly defined and advances are of an acceptable level and secured; compare the physical execution of contracts during supervisions with the financial execution; ensure that contracts are entered as soon as they are approved, as well as amendments; ensure that the duration of the contract does not exceed the closing date; check the list of goods and services before approving a contract.