In its education sector monitoring report for the FY 2020/21, BMAU found that most of the government-sponsored technical, vocational education and training projects that are key for skills development were still lagging. This is contrary to donor-funded skills development projects that registered good performance this financial year.
The report is part of the findings from field monitoring of the Education and Sports sector for the budget execution period of January to June 2021. The field exercises were conducted from August 2021 to September 2021.
According to Charles Nsubuga, a senior technical monitoring officer with BMAU, the education sector commits to several projects amidst inadequate resources which leave many facilities incomplete several years after the start of implementation.
He said poor planning, privatisation and sequencing of programs or projects lead to over-commitment, inadequate funding, and arrears within the sector.
“Despite heavy investment in skills development, most government-led projects are still lagging especially on the civil works that were supposed to be completed last financial year. There are about 10 projects that have been in the work plan since the financial year 2014/15 but none are getting completed yet every financial year, you find them in the budget,” Nsubuga said.
He added: “They just do small things on each project and leave them hanging for the next financial year. If a skills project is valued at Shs 2bn and you release only Shs 300m in a year, it cannot do much. This problematic flow of funds does not enable them to perform.”
The BMAU is charged with tracking the implementation of selected government programs or projects and observing how values of different financial and physical indicators change over time against stated goals and targets. Nsubuga insisted that government needs to prioritize a few projects and fully fund them instead of setting many targets that
cannot be fulfilled.
Whereas Covid-19 heavily impacted the performance of the sector, the same cannot be tagged onto the skills subsector that remained unfunded by the government. According to the BMAU report, some skills projects are behind schedule by six to nine years yet the government is championing the skills development agenda.
“How do you expect people to be skilled when there are no or inadequate facilities to support their training?” Nsubuga asked.
In Iganga, BMAU found that the construction of accommodation facilities at Mbigiti Technical Institute had stalled for at least seven years. By August 2021, construction was at wall plate level.
At Luweero-based Bamunanika Technical Institute, the government had to construct a library, multipurpose hall, administration block, and automotive workshop starting the financial year 2013/14. However, works have been in the work plan for the last seven years and are incomplete.
In the financial year 2014/15, BMAU noted that Uganda Technical College Bushenyi was set to receive a three-storey administration block but to date, construction is at the roofing stage.
At Tororo Cooperative College, an administration block whose construction was set to end in the financial year 2017/18 remains incomplete at 60 per cent progress.
For Uganda Cooperative College Soroti, the government had to procure a tractor between July 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. To date, the tractor is not procured. Meanwhile, for the Uganda Skills Development (USD) donor-funded projects, BMAU noted good performance.
“Construction and rehabilitation of learning and accommodation facilities were ongoing but at different levels; Bukalasa Agricultural College was doing well at 94 per cent, UTC Bushenyi at 83 per cent and UTC Lira at 53.5 per cent,” reads the report.
EDUCATION MINISTRY RESPONDS
The director of Higher Technical Vocational Education and Training (HTVET) at the education ministry, Dr Jane Egau Okou, attributed the dismal performance of the skills subsector to poor management, untimely, and inadequate release of funds to complete projects within the planned time.
“The issue is about the flow of funds. We move ahead to do the procurement and get contractors but in the end, there are no funds. This has gone on over time and it is demotivating,” Egau said.
She explained that for projects that have lagged for more than seven years, sometimes contractors withdraw because they have not been paid and yet mobilizing them back is another daunting task.
“There’s a lot of bureaucracy in the procurement processes. The major problem is the delays in the release of funds and sometimes even when released, monies are not enough. When you release money for construction in the fourth quarter, you don’t expect anything to go on because the year is coming to an end. At the end of the year, BMAU will come and find that we have done so little or nothing at all,” she added.
For projects that have stalled, Egau said efforts are being made to reschedule them when funds are made available by the government.
“Now that we are focusing on skills development, our appeal to government is to ensure that we receive funds that have been planned for the various projects. It is a shame to the government when you go to an institution and a building is a quarter way for almost nine years. We need to clean ourselves and do better.”
Commenting on the report, the state minister for Higher Education, Dr John Muyingo, urged the BMAU to always make their reports available mid-year instead of releasing ‘post-mortem reports’ at the annual education sector reviews.
“I can see things are not good but it is important if you share these reports internally and we rectify some things. If the year is ending and you release such a good report, we may not be in a position to work upon it on time,” Muyingo said.
In the report’s foreword, the finance ministry permanent secretary Ramathan Ggoobi said there is need to use monitoring findings from the BMAU to reinforce government commitment to enforcing accountability, and alignment of programs to meet the goals of the third National Development Plan.
“The pandemic gave us some lessons and opportunities pointing to the need to be more frugal in our public expenditures, and accountable to the people we serve. I urge all entities to adopt the programmatic approach and use these findings to inform our plans and policies, to build the resilience to recover and thrive in both the public and private sectors,” reads Ggoobi’s statement in part.
nangonzi@observer.ug