Budget officials have been faulted for the delay in implementing a number of presidential pledges, and priority projects under the government’s 2010- 2017 programme.

The issue was raised in the ongoing parliamentary hearings for the 2017/2018 district budgets. It was at this hearings that issues of delay in executing some key projects.

Official figures show that besides the programmes lined-up in the government’s 2010-2017 programmes, there were 259 presidential pledges made, out of which 179 had been delivered as of last year. About 67 pledges are said to be at the 50 per cent execution rate while 13 await the new fiscal year to start.

Some of the pledges not delivered are infrastructure projects to build roads, health facilities and processing plants. These were made by President Paul Kagame to residents during his outreach visits, alongside others lined-up in the seven-year government programme.

Officials from the Northern Province, said lack of a budgetary provision had delayed the construction of Gatonde Health Centre in the rural Gakenke District, a dairy in Gicumbi district and hundreds of kilometres of vital roads in Musanze.

“Right now we have no hope that we will be given the funding in the next budget to implement these projects.  We would seek your direction,” Musanze District Mayor Jean Damascène Habyarimana told MPs.

Similar cases of pending government projects were reported by district authorities from across the country.

Agriculture

It is just two months to the start of the 2017/2018 fiscal year when the government is expected to report back on how it has delivered on its seven-year programme.

However, a section of MPs questioned the possibility of completing the projects within the remaining time-frame.

Apart from infrastructure projects, other pending pledges include the country’s one cow per family programme, which is popularly known as Girinka. According to officials from the Agriculture and Animal Resources Ministry, so far 271,709 cows have been distributed, representing 72 per cent of the targeted 350,000 cows by end of this year.

The Agriculture and Animal Resources Ministry estimates that Rwf38 billion is required to meet the pledges. Some MPs blamed inadequate budgeting for unexecuted projects and say certain programmes need to be prioritised during budgetary allocation.

“We wonder why these projects did not get first priority in previous budgets. Last year, the finance ministry assured us that it was going to give these pledges priority but it seems this is not the case,” said MP Theobald Mporanyi.

However, according to the finance ministry sufficient effort was made towards delivering on priority programmes including all pledges confirmed by the office of the President. The ministry’s director for the Fiscal Decentralisation Unit Jonathan Nzayikorera said only a few projects could not be funded in time but would be prioritised in the upcoming budget.

“Only 13 presidential pledges had not been executed last year, but they are going to be a priority this year, including construction of the Gatonde Health Centre, which will receive Rwf1 billion,” Mr Nzayikorera said.