The total challenges faced by the Annual Development Plan 2022/2023 in its first quarter amounted to 665 challenges, the largest percentage of which were administrative challenges (37%). The follow-up reports of the annual plan issued every 3 months show that the challenges are recurring and in frightening numbers. This also causes a weak rate of spending on projects which amounted to 2.5 % during the first quarter.
In addition, 47 % of the 17 new projects received are still in the preparatory stage. Among the administrative challenges are the delays in licensing procedures, delays in necessary approvals and the delays in delivering utilities, including electricity and water, to projects. The issues even include draft laws related to the plan, as the reports repeatedly recommended the need for the authorities to expedite the completion of the draft laws in the plan since several of them have been with the concerned authorities for long periods of time.
The Council of Ministers has called several times the need for the authorities to expedite the completion of the draft laws of the plan and address the challenges they face. They have been advised to increase the momentum for the completion of the preparatory work for the projects. In this context, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Dr. Khaled Mahdi stated that activating the policy of redrawing the role of the government, by limiting the operation of economic activities, will lead to a focus on the role of regulation and oversight and address most of the challenges faced by the annual plans in a more practical way.
Mahdi further stated that, “The General Secretariat and government agencies play the role assigned to them, follow up on the implementation of the plan with the concerned authorities, in coordination and cooperation with the relevant committees in the Council of Ministers and the Municipal Council.”
He added that the continued recurrence of these administrative challenges is due to the absence of institutional governance for project management in most development agencies, weak internal follow-up, and the lack of performance indicators at the level of operational administrative units concerned with project implementation. He stressed that the close follow-up of the development project management committees and teams will inevitably lead to the push towards implementing projects and moving them forward.