[Atrocities]

The game is more hands on than most people are used to. Click on the CRANE icon located on the top row of Icons in the left hand upper corner. That is your Master Construction Que over view as Kwok mentioned.

The UPGRADE button is located on the tab list to the right about half way or so down the page. By clicking this you will tell all your planets, regarless of minister control or not, to upgrade ALL things that can be upgraded. In most cases this will mean that you will upgrade in order, IE shipyard II then Shipyard III even if you already have shipyard III technology. This is a pain, but you can manually remove the shipyard II from the que of each planet effected by such a thing. This applies to all facilities that have multiple upgrades available to them.

The Ministers can only upgrade planets they have control over IIRC. So unless you have minister face showing up next to your planet, they do not have control. You can turn on the planet minister by choosing your planet then clicking the FACE icon (Minister) from the top row / second row? of Icons.

The more you play the game the less you will trust your empire to Ministers. I only use the Transport minister myself, manually turning on the ship minister for each transport I create. Tedious when your producing 100 or so a turn, but well worth the effor IMHO.