~Cg. 90 million ministries enter 2026 unable to provide complete project-by-project results, overruns, underspending, or even a consolidated record of changed completion dates.~
PHILIPSBURG: --- Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina's Ministry of General Affairs is asking Parliament to approve approximately Cg. 90 million for 2026, while admitting it cannot currently provide Parliament with a fully validated account of what happened to every major policy objective and project it was supposed to execute in 2025.
The disclosure is one of the more serious accountability weaknesses buried in Government's answers to questions on the draft 2026 National Budget.
General Affairs was asked to identify every major 2025 policy objective, project and activity and state whether each had been completed, substantially completed, partially completed, delayed, canceled or never started.
The Ministry said it was “not in a position” to provide such a fully validated project-by-project and policy-by-policy overview.
The reason is significant.
According to General Affairs, not all departments have historically maintained project information uniformly, and serious staffing shortages persist in Personnel & Organization (P&O), ICT, Legal Affairs and Legislation, Facility Services, and other administrative functions.
No Consolidated Register of Unfinished Projects
When Parliament went further and requested an itemized accounting of unfinished 2025 activities—including why each was unfinished, its revised deadline, additional funding required and whether it had been carried into Budget 2026—the Ministry again said it could not provide the complete information.
General Affairs acknowledged that there is no consolidated project-and-policy implementation register across its departments for 2025.
The Ministry attributed unfinished activities generally to staffing shortages, limited legislative-drafting capacity, procurement and administrative delays, reliance on external partners, budget constraints and the diversion of resources to urgent matters.
But those explanations do not tell taxpayers which specific project suffered which problem.
Cannot Give Complete Account of Overruns and Underspending
Parliament also asked General Affairs to identify every project or cost center that went over budget and every one that came in under budget.
Again, the Ministry could not provide the requested complete accounting.
General Affairs says it is “presently unable to provide a complete and verified project-by-project analysis of all overruns and under-expenditures for 2025.”
The Ministry says doing so requires reconciliation of allocations, commitments, expenditure, and implementation data across departments, which has not been consolidated because of administrative and staffing constraints.
Government Doesn't Maintain Consolidated Project, Deadline Register
The accountability gap goes even further.
When Parliament requested every project whose completion date changed during 2025, along with the original deadline, new deadline and reason for the delay, General Affairs disclosed that it does not currently maintain a consolidated register containing original and revised completion dates for all projects and activities.
That is a major problem for a Government now promoting policy-based budgeting, which is supposed to connect public money to objectives and measurable results.
The 2026 National Budget itself is being promoted as the first phase of that transition, with Government promising stronger links between spending, policy objectives and measurable outcomes.
But measurable outcomes require measurements.
If the Prime Minister's own Ministry cannot give Parliament a consolidated accounting of which projects were completed, which were delayed, which went over budget, which came in under budget, and when delayed projects are now expected to finish, Parliament faces a basic question:
How can it determine whether another Cg. 90 million represents value for money?
The issue is not whether every delayed project represents failure. General Affairs correctly notes that many projects are multi-year initiatives and some 2025 activities continued into 2026.
The problem is considerably simpler.
Government cannot demand results-based budgeting while the Ministry at the center of Government cannot yet produce a complete results register for the previous year.
