JEDDAH — Prince Saud bin Mishal, deputy emir of Makkah and deputy chairman of the Board of the Region's Development Authority, launched on Sunday the Development Follow-up Unit in the region. The ceremony was held in Jeddah in the presence of Eng. Abdulrazzaq Al-Aujan, CEO of the Government Expenditure and Projects Efficiency Authority, and a number of princes and government officials. The Development Follow-up Unit in the Makkah Region is concerned with following up on capital and development projects, accelerating their completion and ensuring provision of their services to citizens. The Unit comes as a result of cooperation between the Region Development Authority, represented by the Project Management Office and the Government Expenditure and Projects Efficiency Authority, with the objective of enhancing the level of transparency in performance reports and ensure the reliability of project data, raise the efficiency and effectiveness of planning and the quality of implementation of development projects and manage the life cycle of assets, facilities and government procurement in the region. It also enables to build and qualify the capacities of national cadres, support the region's strategic work, in addition to identifying the causes of delays in completing projects and working to address them. During the ceremony, Prince Saud was briefed on an introductory presentation about the Project Management Office at the Region Development Authority, which included the tasks assigned to the office, the most prominent of which are building a methodology for the Project Management Office, following up on the authority's projects and ensuring their commitment to approved procedures, providing support and guidance to the departments concerned with implementing and managing projects, developing reports and sharing them with stakeholders, raising the level of maturity of project management and improving their success rate, and following up on regional projects and supporting in addressing the delayed projects. The Deputy Emir was also briefed on an introductory presentation about the authority and its strategy aimed at improving the efficiency of each of government spending and estimating needs, the effectiveness of government procurement operations and developing strategic procurement, planning and implementing infrastructure projects, operating and maintaining assets and facilities, and developing systematic policies and systems. Prince Faisal witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Government Expenditure and Projects Efficiency Authority and the Region Development Authority. The MoU aims to enhance mutual and common understanding between the two parties, achieve spending efficiency, activate the role of the Spending Efficiency Team in the Region's Development Authority in exploring opportunities to achieve spending efficiency and work to activate them to achieve financial sustainability targets, cooperate in the field of project management, develop capabilities and align portfolios, support operation and maintenance, and define the framework of cooperation, roles and responsibilities between them to serve common interests and goals to achieve the public interest.
