KUWAIT CITY, Jan 14: A follow-up report on the 2024/2025 annual plan, issued by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, has highlighted delays in the completion of approximately 93 out of 133 development projects in the first six months of the fiscal year. The report revealed that the total expenditures for development projects by the end of the second quarter reached just 9.7 percent. This is 1.2 percent lower than the previous year and 3.4 percent lower than the 2022/2023 fiscal year. The total spending on these 133 projects amounted to KD 111.6 million, out of an allocated KD 1.2 billion for the current fiscal year.

Projects in the implementation phase were 50 percent complete, with the projects distributed over nine key programs. Notable among these is the sixth program, which is focused on building cohesive infrastructure with 33 projects, and the second program, which includes two projects. The annual plan comprises 122 ongoing projects and 11 new ones, with 49 percent currently in the implementation phase. In addition, 17 projects have yet to commence.

In terms of achievements, the report indicated that 27 of the plan’s projects were on track with the established timeline. This performance is slightly improved compared to the 25 percent on-time achievement rate for the same period in 2023/2024, but comparable to the 27 percent rate for 2022/2023. By the end of the second quarter, 71 percent of projects were behind schedule, a slight improvement over the 72 percent delay rate for the previous year, but higher than the 68 percent reported in the 2022/2023 plan. Regarding the actual status of construction and development projects, the report showed the following completion rates:
20 percent of construction projects in preparatory phase,
70 percent in implementation phase,
10 percent in the delivery phase. For development projects, 30 percent are in the preparatory phase and 70 percent are in the implementation phase.

By Mohammed Ghanem
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff