The Ministry of Infrastructure reveals that during the summer, in one month, about 700 people in the City of Kigali applied for building permits using the technology used to issue building documents (BPMIS).
In normal times, it is about 500, adding to other areas, especially in the cities supporting Kigali, the number of applicants for construction permits is increasing.
The increase in the number of people who need to upgrade commercial, hotel or residential buildings is one of the reasons why the Government of Rwanda has set up the BPMIS [Building Permits Management Information System] technology to be used by applicants for building permits.
On the other hand, in this technology there are still problems in its operation and use.
The Minister of Infrastructure, Dr Nsabimana Ernest on February 21, 2023, delivered to the Parliament, a verbal explanation of the measures to solve the problems that are still emerging in this technology.
He explained that this project was launched in 2012, and it is currently one of the key points in the implementation of the government’s plan to provide 100% digital services by 2024.
It is a technology that has had a different journey where it first started as a small project that was funded by partners, then the World Bank came in, but then the Government of Rwanda took over.
Lawmakers have identified critical issues with this technology
In general, six questions were presented to the Prime Minister, Dr. Ngirente Edouard, so that he could submit them to the responsible body that would be able to show the answers.
The President of the Lands, Agriculture, Livestock and Environment Commission, Uwera Kayumba Marie Alice said that there is no management system for this technology established by the documents that go with it.
He said, “The audit revealed that there is no ICT committee for BPMIS management that has been established to monitor its implementation and help it achieve its goals. This resulted in no records showing how the project started, how it was managed and how much money was invested.”
Another problem is that this project does not have long-term planning documents available for the implementation of this project. This means that no planning has been done for this project.
Other problems that have been identified are that there is no planned way of managing this technology and protecting data in the event of an accident.
Saint Kayumba Marie Alice said, “The audit revealed gaps in the management of the information contained in this technology so that it was found that there was a technology accident where all the information could be lost.”
On May 6, 2019, the National Construction Agency signed a contract with a private company that was supposed to carry out work to improve BPMIS technology.
RHA gave the center 290 million Frw, where the work was to be done in 12 months. On the other hand, it has reached 2022, the provisions of the agreement have not been implemented as Kayumba continued to say.
“It was found that until the audit was carried out in April 2022, there were many of the contents of the contract that had not yet been carried out, but about 133 million Frw had already been paid,” he said.
