News
11-member committee to monitor development programmes
View(s):The government has set up an 11-member ‘’Public Investment Monitoring and Evaluation Committee’’ (PIMEC) with authority to summon the contract community, development partners, experts, foreign missions and other official representatives to discuss development programmes.
The move has been conveyed by Finance Ministry Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena to ministry secretaries, department heads and chairpersons of state corporations and statutory boards. His letter states that, where development programmes and projects are required to be implemented as a collective effort, PIMEC is tasked with coordinating and providing advice to enable strategic decisions to be taken and acted upon speedily.
The committee will make suggestions regarding project management to avoid problems that affect the smooth functioning of the various initiatives. Where necessary, it will submit recommendations to the Cabinet regarding public investment programmes or projects. And PIMC will also be tasked with taking prompt action or making recommendations when directives are made to it by the Cabinet.
If a requirement arises to evaluate any programme, project or activity, PIMEC must direct the relevant parties to carry out such evaluation and submit recommendations in keeping with accepted procedure.
PIMEC has been set up under Section 44(3) of the Public Finance Management Act, which states that “there shall be a committee appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers comprising not more than eleven (11) members from the heads of entities responsible for planning, resource mobilising, budgeting, financing and monitoring relating to taking expeditious strategic decisions on the implementation of public investment projects, based on the information provided by the Chief Accounting Officers and the Accounting Officers”.
In his letter, the Finance Ministry Secretary identifies multiple reasons for why the anticipated returns have not been obtained in comparison with the investment made into Sri Lanka’s socioeconomic development. Among them is weakness in project management and implementation, shortfalls in contract management and non-fulfilment of basic parameters required for starting projects. In some cases, debt repayment has started but project work isn’t completed.
Meanwhile, engineering design deficiencies and unrealistic cost estimates regularly cause the initially approved total cost estimate to increase and for additional loans and funds to constantly be taken, the Secretary says. Many of these reasons lead to additional time being sought to complete projects while high expenses are incurred just to maintain Project Management Units.
The 11 PIMEC members are two Ministry Secretaries appointed by the Secretary to the President; a Senior Additional Secretary to the President; an Additional Secretary from the Prime Minister’s Office appointed by the Prime Minister’s Secretary; a Deputy Treasury Secretary named by the Treasury Secretary; Director General of the National Planning Department; Director General of the National Budget Department; Director General of the External Resources Department; Director General of the Department of Treasury Operations; Director General of the Project Management and Monitoring Department; and the Director General of the Management Services Department.
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