The Treasury Instructions, 2017 have prescribed the steps to be followed in project identification and preparation, especially for projects to be implemented by GoU. This is true for both cases where the intention is to mobilise resources from the national budget or for funding above the budget ceiling. The steps are also applicable where the resources are being raised from Multilateral and Bilateral Agencies. The steps are summarised below:
(a) FMIs obtain a no objection to prepare a project under GoU from the Vote and Sector Working Group’s project preparation committees
(b) A Concept Note is submitted to the Accounting Officer responsible for the relevant vote, sector or agency. This is also applicable if the FMI is seeking counterpart funding to support raising of resources from Development Cooperation Agencies, or under the Government guaranteed Public Private Partnerships (PPPs).
(c) The concept note is subject to approvals by the relevant Committee within the sponsoring vote, the Sector Working Group, and the Development Committee at Ministry of Finance.
(d) Once the Concept Note is accepted by the Development Committee, a Project Profile is prepared and submitted for approval.
(e) Once Project Profile has been approved, a full project appraisal is undertaken. This includes a pre-feasibility and a feasibility study.
(f) When a feasibility study is approved, then a full project proposal may be prepared.
(g) The approved proposal forms part of the bankable projects stored in the integrated bank of projects or any other database created by Government. The inventory of bankable projects forms a pool from which the Public Investment Plan and the development budget are prepared. The more projects the forestry sector prepares and are included in the public investment plan, the greater the chance that they will be used to generate resources for the forestry programmes
(h) If the FMI plans to mobilise resources from Multilateral and Bilateral Agencies (in the form of official development assistance), the approach for the GoU financing is also followed. This is in addition to using of these agencies’ established procedures.
(i) If the FMI is planning to mobilise resources from private capital (such as High net worth individuals, institutional investors, faith based organisations, large endowments, banks, multinationals, domestic companies, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) where government support is available, the process may either be as outlined above, or it may be modified to follow the PPP approach. The PPP approach is specifically provided in the Treasury instructions (2017), sub-sections 4.34-4.39.
Instruction 364: FMIs should follow the procedures outlined above, and described in detail in the Treasury Instructions, 2017 in order to avoid unnecessary delays in getting the approval of projects