Project Planning and Performance of the Health Centre iv Programme in Kabale District, Uganda

Abstract

This research was a correlation survey aimed at finding out relationships between project planning and performance of the Health Centre IV (HC IV) Programme in Kabale District motivated by the nationwide poor performance of the Programme. Project Planning was investigated in respect of scope definition, estimating and scheduling while performance was measured in terms of completion of project components within time and budget as well as functionality of completed facilities. The study sample included 26 officials involved in planning at the district comprising of members of the District Councillors, the District Health Technical Team and the District Technical Planning Committee. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire for the majority of respondents and face-to-face interviews of top district officials. The study findings revealed that planning for the Programme was unsatisfactory. Resources required were neither fully established nor accurately estimated before implementation and estimates were not based on the local conditions. Scheduling for equipment supply and staff deployment was overly delayed. Management of construction was inappropriately assigned to the district that lacked the necessary competencies. Allocations for operational expenses were grossly underestimated. Performance of programme was overly poor. All components were completed late and with cost overruns and there was a scope creep of 40% when the number of HC IVs was increased from 5 to 7. Worse still, all the 7 HC IVs in the district were not offering the intended emergency obstetrics care. Finally, the study established that there was a moderately strong positive correlation between planning and performance of the Programme which implies that the poor performance of the programme in Kabale district could be associated with poor planning. To revamp the programme performance, therefore, it may be necessary to review the requisite planning processes.