A Worrying Regulatory Gap
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on-site information boards for public works usually show only the building permit, the name of the contracting authority, the nature of the project and the main contractor. No national regulation currently requires these boards to display either the project’s total cost or the sources of public funding.
Unlike countries such as France, where disclosing the full financing plan is mandatory for any subsidised project, the DRC has not yet baked this principle of budgetary transparency into its Urban Planning Code or its public-procurement laws.
Why Display the Project Cost?
When the financial details of public-infrastructure projects interchanges, roads, schools, hospitals or hydraulic structures are kept off-site, an opaque environment takes hold, fostering unjustified cost overruns, fund misappropriation and a loss of public trust.
Showing the total project cost, the names of the donors or financing partners and the contracting authority would:
Guarantee greater transparency in the use of public funds
Strengthen institutional accountability
Enable citizens and civil-society watchdogs to play their oversight role
Deter over-billing and double financing, practices still seen too often in some sectors
A Long-Awaited Reform
The National Urban Planning and Construction Code, under preparation since 2023, could close this gap. Once adopted, it should make it compulsory to display the project cost on every public-works site together with the funding sources (State budget, bilateral aid, multilateral lenders, and so on).
Such a rule would set the DRC on the path to more responsible management of public resources, at a time when infrastructure modernisation and pressure for quality services are both mounting.
A Civic Recommendation
Pending a legal mandate, public institutions in the DRC would be well advised to adopt this practice voluntarily. Adding the project’s budget to the boards visible from the street would both reassure citizens and demonstrate the authorities’ commitment to forging a new relationship of trust between the State and its people.
So long as the price tag of public projects remains hidden, suspicions of over-invoicing will continue to tarnish development efforts. Systematically displaying project costs is not a mere technicality it is a tool for transparency, good governance and the fight against corruption. It is time for the DRC to take this step.
