Must we wait for Umwiherero to evaluate government projects?

Editor, Reference is made to the article, “Leaders put to task over stalled projects” (The New Times, March 2). The best thing about President Paul Kagame is his pragmatism when dealing with national issues. I think Umwiherero should consider having a simple and clear monitoring and evaluation matrix that should be applied at all levels of service delivery in a timely manner. This will avoid similar unsuccessful stories like Gishoma peat energy and the gross mismanagement of the community-based health insurance scheme, Mutuelle de Sante. Had leaders monitored these projects from the start, they could have identified the risks and dealt with them accordingly, by making necessary interventions or adjustments a timely manner, other than having to wait for the next retreat. As for a project to have a design fault presupposes that participation or input from the right technical stakeholders was limited. Bob Kirenga ********************* It is the many truths the President hammered home that we have in mind when we say our institutions are as yet insufficiently mature to function like well-oiled machinery in order to move the business of this country forward. It was very clear when he spoke, the President was voicing long repressed frustrations over the failure of almost all his senior/subordinates to deliver in accordance with agreed targets and therefore the failure of the system as a whole to achieve set goals, in the process wasting resources our country can ill afford. If he allowed himself to let that exasperation out in public it is because he has had enough of the many that must be pulled by the few for us to achieve even the little we keep pointing to with so much pride. But how much more might we have achieved were everyone doing their job properly and our institutions functioning like a well-oiled machine? As the President also noted, the monster of corruption devours some of our efforts and it is virtually a full time job just to keep it in check. As painful as it was to watch (until Rwanda Broadcasting Agency decided to cut off the roasting), this was a thoroughly timely reality check for those who think, on their own without the President, our institutions are ready to stand on the big stage and deliver what the country must have. The question is, how do we accelerate the process of institution-building so that we are not forced to rely on one person’s effort and ability to draw as much as possible from our weak institutions? Where shall we get the right Rwandans who not only want to be the best but know how to work together to be so and are also motivated to do what is needed to get there fast? Alas, as our exasperated President told us, he has in turn and in combination tried the old, the young and the in-between but for now we do not seem to have a sufficient pool of such Rwandans to pull us ahead where we want (no, need) to be. For, as he underlined, our ambition cannot be limited to comparing ourselves with those in our condition so as to be able to say, at least we are better than them. And nobody, but nobody, will deliver to us what we want or need. Mwene Kalinda

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Must we wait for Umwiherero to evaluate government projects?