IMPROVEMENT: Latest CoST Uganda’s Infrastructure Transparency Findings Appealing

By Our Reporter

KAMPALA, Uganda [SHIFTMEDIA] The 2024 Infrastructure Transparency Index conducted by CoST Uganda has shown a tremendous improvement regarding enabling environment, and Citizen Participation.

The findings from the second Index that was commissioned on 11th April 2024, revealed that Uganda’s national ITI score improved from 20.8% recorded in 2021 to 32.26% in 2024.

Odong Geoffrey, the CoSt Manager Uganda told the participants during the release of the report at Golf Course Hotel in Kampala on Thursday that most government entities are adhering to the procurement principles, especially regarding information disclosure.

Odong said a total of 30 entities were interviewed, to ascertain the enabling environment, Citizen Participation, Capacities and Processes, and Information Disclosure standards.

 

“We registered some tremendous improvement in Enabling environment (43.50%) , the highest, even beating Costa Rica that is a shining example regarding ITI,’ said Odong.

He said Citizen Participation score 33.65%, Capacities and Processes scored 29.78%, while Information Disclosure remained at the tail end, like always with 26.81%.

“The ITI also measured levels of transparency across 30 entities, revealing that only three entities scored above 50%,” said Odong.

Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) topped the pack with 80.26% among the best performing entities, followed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, and the President’s Office, that emerged third.

The CoST Uganda Chapter Champion, Gen Edward Katumba Wamala, the Minister for Works and Transport in a message read by Ag Engineer in Chief Eng. Stephen Kitonsa appealed to the selected government entities to cooperate and provide the required infrastructure project data to support CoST Uganda in effectively completing the evaluation exercise.

Gen Katumba Wamala congratulated the 58 projects that were evaluated from the selected 30 entities.

“Whereas there is a slight improvement compared to the first index, the performance still needs to be improved to the expected standards,” said Wamala.

Improvements Registered

In the ITI conducted in 2021, Enabling environment recorded 41.4% compared to the 43.50% registered in 2024.

Capacities and Processes, shot from 13.5% recorded in 2021 to 29.78% in 2024, while

Citizen participation registered a tremendous leap from what was registered as 13.8% in 2021 to 33.65% in 2024.

The mean performing Information disclosure also registered some improvement from 18.4% in 2021 to 26.81% in 2024.

CoST Africa Regional Manager Olive Kabatwairwe noted that the improvements are encouraging, suggesting that the efforts of CoST Uganda and all stakeholders

involved in this process are yielding positive results.