Chilima impressed with Presidential Delivery Unit progress
Vice-President Saulos Klaus Chilima on Thursday said he was impressed with the Presidential Delivery Unit Labs being set up at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe.
The Presidential Delivery Unit has started with ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) listing projects they have lined up to implement, how they will implement them and doing problem-solving to remove obstacles and accelerate delivery.
Speaking after inspecting the project, the Veep said he was happy that there was a lot of good news from this initiative.
He said: “I am delighted, but I will not discuss much as that is the duty of the President who sanctioned the Presidential Delivery Unit. I am happy with what is happening in all the four clusters I went to. There is good progress.”
Chilima said the unit gives the people an opportunity to know much about project management and how to do business to develop the country.
However, he observed that there are some disparities between the number of projects proposed by some MDAs and what is in the records.
“The number of projects that I know [about are slightly different] from those I have seen. It is good things are going on well, some approvals have been done and other issues are resolved but I cannot get into details now,” said Chilima.
On funding challenges, the Vice-President said: “We will explore other funding options like the President said in the State of National Address and budget statement available with Ministry of Finance by, among others, encouraging local currency bond. Already we managed to raise K13.6 billion, others may say this is small, but we might not borrow a lot of money while we attract interest,” he said.
Chilima said the Tonse Alliance administration is committed to walking the talk on all the promises it made during the campaign period.
Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit, who is also chief adviser to the President on Sustainable Development Goals and international affairs, Colleen Zamba, said the project is making good progress.
“We are now at problem-solving stage, we have done a lot of project analysis, checking where there are bottlenecks to fast-track delivery of these priority projects.
“The main work of these delivery labs hinged on planning, prioritising and performance management which will lead to reaching a delivery line faster,” she said. President Lazarus Chakwera launched the Delivery Labs at Capital Hill on October 18 to fast-track the fulfillment of promises made to Malawians during the campaign period.
