Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, emphasized on Monday the need for revamping the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system of the Planning Commission, observing that the weak system always resulted in delay and inefficiency in the implementation of the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) projects.
The Department of Geospatial Technology Cell of Pakistan Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) briefed the Minister on the recently developed Geographic Information System (GIS) web portal. The portal is meant to monitor the infrastructure projects and support the Planning Commission by utilizing the modern solutions for evidence-based reporting and monitoring of PSDP projects, incorporating satellite technology.
The meeting was conducted to revamp the M&E system enabling it with state-of-the-art technologies. Demonstrations of the solutions, covering data collection with geo-tagged real-time information and pictures offering both online and offline mechanisms for data transmission, were made to the Minister. He was informed that SUPARCO was providing the first intact knowledge of the real-time project, adding that it was able after every four days to see the ground progress of the project through this technology.
Asad Umar said the weak M&E system in the Planning Commission always caused delays in the execution of projects, causing massive overrun, increase in cost, and wastage of taxpayer money. “That’s why we need to revamp the overall M&E process,” he said, adding, “We need to have a clear idea of how this system can be used to monitor the quantitative and qualitative condition of projects, how well be these integrated with the system.”
He also underlined the frequency of assessments and sought details, in the next meeting, on how the Planning Commission would coordinate monitoring and assessment information with future reports.
The Minister appreciated SUPARCO to be part of this endeavor through satellite imagery and GIS data analytics, geo-tagged field data collection, and real-time implementation progress of the projects. The forum suggested further improvements and integration of the system with the Planning Commission system for effective monitoring.
Secretary Planning, Abdul Aziz Uqaili, Member SUPARCO, Zafar Iqbal, Member M&E, Additional Secretaries, Chief Technology Officer (Cell), Riffat Shamshad, and senior officials attended the meeting.
