Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

This technical report discusses the results of the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) undertaken in March 2022. Despite some recovery in the 2000s, the levels of public investment in the DRC remain well below the average for comparator countries, and access and quality of infrastructure are very poor, with major risks of deterioration. While the government aims to meet part of these needs by creating fiscal space, successful infrastructure development will hinge on improvements in investment efficiency, which can be achieved by strengthening public investment management practices. Public investment management in the DRC suffers from weaknesses across the whole project cycle, both on paper (legal and regulatory framework) and in practice. Efficient project management is hampered by administrative and legal fragmentation, which leads to dilution of capacity, and by budget credibility issues. This report proposes seven high-priority recommendations that could greatly improve public investment management in the short to medium term. The report also includes the results of the climate module of the PIMA evaluation, which reflect that the DRC’s commitments in the fight against climate change are beginning to feed into public investment management practices.