Influence of Project Management Skills of Staff on Performance of Government Funded Projects in Rwanda: A Case of Huguka Dukore Project in Nyarugenge District

The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of project management skills of staff on performance of government funded projects in Rwanda. The study was guided by the following objectives, to examine the influence of human resource management skills of staff on performance of government funded projects in Rwanda, to establish how financial planning skills of staff influence performance of government funded projects in Rwanda, to assess how monitoring and evaluation skills of staff influence performance of government funded projects in Rwanda and to examine how risk management skills of staff influence the performance of government funded projects in Rwanda. It is hoped that the findings of this study would help the management of Huguka Dukore initiative to understand the importance of developing project management skills of staff thus appreciate the application of such skills in the running of the day to day operations of projects. It would also guide the development of policies and guidelines governing human resource management, financial planning, monitoring and evaluation and also risk management practices. The study would contribute to the existing knowledge in project management and to increasing performance standards amongst the project management professionals and the entire industry. It would also help improve the management of government funded project. The study on project management skills would provide a platform for more research in the area and would also be used as a source of references by scholars. The research adopted Descriptive survey research design with a view of collecting information through administering questionnaires and interviews to the sampled respondents. The population of this study was 500 out of which a sample of 217 respondents was selected using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for determining sample size, at the confidence interval of 0.05 and confidence level of 95 %. The study employed stratified and simple random sampling technique. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of the study were presented using table, charts and explanation was given in prose form. The study found out that employee at Huguka Dukore were not recruited based on experience from similar projects, training of employees was not done on a regular basis and that employees did not transfer knowledge gained from the training to the work place. The study also established that there was no internal financial control system at Huguka Dukore and that each task was not well budgeted. The study revealed that there was no tracking of implementation schedules and activities, there was no regular evaluation of project progress and that there were no periodic monitoring reports generated. Risk identification checklists were in place and were developed based on historical information. The study recommends the following, recruitment of employees with experience from similar projects and regular training of employees to increase knowledge, establishment of an internal financial control system and proper budgeting, monitoring and evaluation of all schedules and activities to ensure that necessary actions are taken in good time.