WB not happy with seven funded projects

KATHMANDU:

The World Bank (WB) has expressed concern over poor implementation of seven projects in the country in which the multilateral lending agency has invested close to $500 million.

These projects include Emerging Towns Project, Road Sector Development Project, Bridge Improvement and Maintenance Programme, Kabeli Transmission Project, Enhanced Vocational Education and Training Project, Nepal Health Sector Programme and Community Action for Nutrition Project (Sunaula Hazar Din).

“These projects have not been able to utilise the allocated funds, conduct financial audits and procurement works on time, and prepare comprehensive action plans for execution. These projects have also been witnessing frequent transfer of staff and have been victims of red tape and bad governance,” the WB officials said during quarterly portfolio performance review meeting held today at the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

So far, WB has pledged to invest around $1.53 billion in 20 projects in the country, ranging from education, livelihoods, and health to energy, roads, agriculture, among others. However, the government has so far been able to utilise only around $877 million of the amount. This fiscal year, the government has committed to disburse $180 million, but only $64 million has been used in the last six months.

“Low disbursement of funds has always been the main concern for WB,” head of International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division at the MoF Madhu Marasini told The Himalayan Times. This is because various projects take a lot of time to hire consultants to prepare project plans and award contracts.

A recent study by Asian Development Bank showed projects here take average of 2.5 years to achieve 25 per cent of contract award target and 2.3 years to disburse 10 per cent of loans and grants.

Take for instance, WB’s Emerging Towns Project, which aims at improving delivery and sustainable provision of basic services and priority infrastructure in municipalities. The project has utilised only 37 per cent of allocated funds despite approval of the project in May 2011. “Works in the project is moving at a very slow pace because of lack of coordination between the municipalities and the Ministry of Urban Development,” a MoF official said on condition of anonymity.

Likewise, Nepal Health Sector Programme, which aims to expand access to essential health care services, has not submitted audited financial reports of last two years, the MoF official added. To address these problems, MoF is preparing an action plan, according to Marasini.

Source: THT