In a rare and stark admission, Gabon’s draft National Growth and Development Plan (PNCD 2026–2030) reveals that nearly half of public investment funds in the country are never spent, a major shortcoming that helps explain persistent gaps in basic infrastructure.
According to Gabonreview, the diagnosis is unequivocal: to support growth, the government has set a priority target of raising the execution rate of the investment budget from 50 per cent to over 90 per cent.
The goal underscores the scale of the problem. Currently, half of the funds earmarked for roads, schools, hospitals and energy projects fail to materialize on the ground.
The situation is partly attributed to a structural imbalance in public finances. The report notes that operating expenditures, particularly wages, absorb over two-thirds of the state budget, leaving investment with only a marginal share, estimated at around 3 per cent of GDP. Even these limited resources, however, are often left unused.
The PNCD highlights a chain of systemic shortcomings, including weak preparatory studies, insufficient multi-year planning, inadequate monitoring, administrative delays and late budget adjustments. As a result, projects are often included in the budget without being ready for implementation, only to be abandoned before the end of the fiscal year.
These weaknesses are compounded by governance issues. The plan points to insufficient financial transparency and irregular or incomplete public accounts, raising questions about the traceability of unspent funds.
A key question remains unresolved: what ultimately happens to the half of the investment budget that is not executed? While the document refers broadly to corruption, it does not quantify its impact or directly link it to the observed gaps.
Nevertheless, practices such as opaque public procurement, single-source contracting, overbilling and embezzlement are cited as plausible contributing factors.
This is not the first time such dysfunctions have been identified. Previous development plans had already pledged similar reforms, including modernisation of public financial management, digitalisation of procurement systems and strengthened oversight. However, tangible results on the ground have remained slow to materialise.
DM/te/lb/gik/APA