Sector-wise project review to be done

Aug 24, 2015

Nepali officials and foreign donors are scheduled to sit down together for the annual Nepal Portfolio Performance Review (NPPR) on September 11 to review the progress of donor-funded development projects.

Officials said that discussions would be held on a sector-wise basis instead

of thematic issues for the first time. “Agriculture, road, energy, local governance and education are the sectors which will be discussed,” said Narayan Dhakal, under-secretary at the Finance Ministry.

During previous meetings, discussions would be concentrated on thematic issues like poor public financial management, frequent transfer of project staff, public procurement and managing development results.

“As these issues are prevalent in all the sectors, we are focusing on sectors this year,” said Dhakal. “Our discussions will examine the results in each sector.” While poor spending on development project is a general trend, it is worse in the case of donor-funded projects.  

According to the Finance Ministry, the government mobilized grants totalling Rs37.73 billion against the targeted Rs73.38 billion. Likewise, external loan mobilization amounted to Rs25.48 billion against the target of Rs49.73 billion.

Given the poor performance of projects financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) this year, its senior officials warned that its aid to Nepal could go elsewhere in the coming years if performance did not improve.

Source: The Kathmandu Post