Utilise own workforce, not foreigners: chief secy directs ministry

KATHMANDU, JAN 20 - 

Chief Secretary Lila Mani Paudel has directed the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management to utilise its own technical workforce instead of spending huge resources to hire foreign consultants for infrastructure development projects. He questioned the logic behind the trend of hiring international consultants to design and build local projects.

During his inspection visit to the ministry on Friday, Paudel instructed the ministry officials to design projects by themselves rather than blindly approving foreigners’ work without proper check. “We have found no innovation in projects despite involvement of foreign consultants. We have been failing to utilise our engineers,” he said, adding major projects were dominated by foreign consultants.

The chief secretary raised question over a number of issues such as haphazard road planning, no proper quality control mechanism, growing sub-contracts, and arbitrary compensation demand for land. He said roads lacked quality and there was confusion about whom the government should hold accountable for such poor work — contractor or engineer.

Many donor agencies, including the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency, have been supporting the government in a number of road development projects. Ministry officials said the dependency on foreign consultants has come down in recent years. “However, hiring foreign consultants is necessary for bringing in new technology and capacity building,” said an official. “The fact is we do not have the expertise that foreign consultants have.”

Every year, the government invests billions of rupees for road infrastructure. But roads are being extended without proper planning because of political pressure and demand from locals.

In recent years, with the government planning big projects like the Kathmandu Tarai Fast Track, Mid-Hill Highway and Railway Projects, land acquisition and compensation have also emerged as big problems. “Locals want highway in front of their homes, but when it comes to land acquisition, they demand hefty amount in compensation,” said an engineer at the Department of Roads.

Source: The Kathmandu Post