Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

406 Salvatore Schiavo-Campo
BOX 12.4 Providing Technical Contestability for Investment
Proposals in Algeria
To help address the weaknesses in investment project preparation and
execution, Algeria launched in 2005 the National Center for Infrastructure for
Development (Caisse Nationale pour l’Équipement et le Développement, or
CNED), which is expected to be fully operational in 2007. The CNED’s essential
functions are (a) technical oversight of the preparation, execution, and evaluation
of major projects and (b) guidance and facilitation of capacity building
in the line ministries. It is governed by a board chaired by the minister of
finance and including four other ministers (in addition to the minister directly
concerned with an agenda item), and its management is entrusted to a director
general with the autonomy and responsibility appropriate to a professionally
run enterprise.
The CNED has the responsibility and authority to do the following, in
sequence:
Advise on the general viability of the ideas of major projects before the
launching of the detailed feasibility studies.
Confirm that the project preparation procedures were respected in form
and substance before a project can be included in the investment budget.
Follow up project execution.
Lead the preparation of relevant manuals for the line ministries.
Initiate the postcompletion evaluation of projects and programs and
facilitate the creation of an evaluation capacity in the line ministries.
The authority of the CNED is limited to “major projects.” The criteria for
defining such projects are (a) the total cost, including both initial investment
and estimated future recurrent costs, with a uniform threshold as well as
higher ones established sector by sector, and (b) qualitative criteria, such as
the special innovative nature or special risks of a project or program.
In its review of project preparation, the CNED is expected to ascertain,
among other things, the consistency of the proposed project with the sector
strategy. It may comment on the strategy, but only to the extent that weaknesses
impede the preparation of economically sound projects. As a technical
body, the CNED has no authority to review the sectoral strategies themselves—
let alone contribute to their formulation, which is the core responsibility of the
ministries concerned, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, and approved
by the highest levels of government.
The CNED is expected to by lightly structured, with short lines of command
and a small but highly competent staff. It will operate mainly by commissioning
and supervising studies by external consultants. Its overhead costs will be
covered by a regular budget allocation, with the Ministry of Finance’s allocating
additional amounts as needed to cover the costs of studies and other project
scrutiny activities. This mode of financing will permit the CNED activities to