First National Developmental Policy Forum Thursday, February 20th, 2014



Its been about three weeks since i attended a meeting put together by ACODE Best know for its local government councils score card. To discuss amongst other things best practice in procurement and governance in general.


The venue was Victoria Hall at the Serena Hotel in Kampala Uganda. In attendance were representatives from the Office Of the Prime Minister, National Planning Authority and Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development, Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority .  
as well as Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.

In addition to these ministries there were representative from Uganda Association of Building and Civil Engineers and the Association of Chief Administrative Officers.

Because much of the discourse focused on procurement. The idea was to present the perspectives of the largest budget holder (in this case Ministry of Energy Mineral Development) and suggest methods of improvement for other ministries around challenges and best practice.

Naturally government through the Office of the Prime Minister reiterated its commitment to fulfilling the goals of Vision 2040.

While the presentations were good and generally rather technical, its was worth noting the challenges that arise when you have to deal with projects whose funding in not local and other rules which govern the tendering process.

A representative from the Association of Ugandan Contractors, urged local contractors were to apply for tenders especially for smaller projects.

It was good hearing from the ministry that handles the largest budget but it would also have been good hearing from the ministry that handles the smallest budget.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stakeholder’s consultative workshop on developing a compliance pack for MSMEs organized by the Personal Data Protection Office (PDPO)

Image
The Timetable and Setup  The venue of choice was great. Friends have been there before. Weddings, ICT Events and Workshops similar to this one. The ICT event was much broader and had quite a number of breakout rooms. The topics that was featured were myriad as were the speakers. The technology employed at this same was state of the art as were the lovely ladies that served as hosts to guide us to and from the different stations.  Time  Item  Responsible Person/Speaker 8-9AM Prayer and National Anthem Mr. Jordan Magala 9-9:10AM Opening Remarks  National Personal Data Protection Director Ms. Stella Alibateese 9:10-9:30AM Remarks from FSDU FSD Uganda 9:50-10:30AM Overview of the Data Protection and Privact Act Manager Compliance and Investigations PDPO Mr. Baker Birikujja 10:30-10:45AM Break All 10:45-11:15AM Overview of the development of the compliance assignment Ms. Teki Akuntteh 11:15-12:15PM Breakout Exercise by Participants  All 12:15-12:25PM Final Rema...
Read more

Conversation with Moses Eteku of Shamos Tech Solutions

Image
1. What are your names? My name is Eteku Moses. 2. Where did you go to school? I attended Makerere University. 3. What did you study? I studied Computer Engineering and earned a bachelor's degree. 4. Tell us about what you do? I hear you have two major projects for which you have sole responsibility? I am the CEO and CTO of FarmPawa and the founder and CEO of Shamos Tech Solutions. FarmPawa is a platform that connects investors with agricultural opportunities, primarily supporting smallholder farmers in Uganda. Investors can choose farm assets like livestock or crops, monitor their progress, and earn profits at harvest, benefiting both themselves and the farmers. Shamos Tech Solutions provides tailored IT solutions for businesses and developed KauntaBook, a product that simplifies financial management for small businesses. 5. What are some of the major influences in your past that are determining what you are doing now? Growing up in a rural area, I saw firsthand the...
Read more

Education 2.0

Education 2.0 ? A few interesting but seemingly unrelated events are taking place as we speak. The internet is changing the way we think about education and the manner in which we communicate (socialize). At the centre of this dramatic change, groups like google realized a quite a while back that someone had to put all this new information in order for others to utilize. And so they invaded search and in some sense are attempting to monopolize it.  Universities and educational institutions chose not to be left behind and began initiatives in which they explored extensively the area of online education. As they sensed the push toward open source models they went on to create platforms in their institutions where information could be shared and some lectures provided at no cost. While core aspects of their learning materials were retained, students and learning enthusiasts were free to engage in intensive learning experiences with top level schools in the U.S and in the U.K wh...
Read more