Federal Minister for Planning Development and Reform, Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday said the foreign donors are our development partners, considering their role and contribution in our development throughfinancing. He said, “We must ensure proper utilization of funds and timely completion of projects.”
He said this while chaired the meeting of ‘foreign assisted PSDP projects review committee’ attended by delegations from World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan, US Aid and project executing ministries including Ministry of Water and Power, Ministry of Communication, Health, Education and Commerce, according to press release issued by Ministry.
Ahsan Iqbal further said, “Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform is strengthening its scrutiny and monitoring systems to ensure proper scrutiny and management of development projects.
The Committee reviewed the progress of ongoing projects of Rs 670 billion worth foreign assisted development projects for financial year 2013-2014.
Reviewed projects include Rs 408.5 billion worth, assisted by Asian Development Bank; projects worth Rs 141 billion, assisted by World Bank, worth Rs 72 billion assisted by Japan and worth Rs 50 billion assisted by US aid, with partial and complete funding, were reviewed in the meeting.
These projects, whose performance was reviewed, were from various sectors including, power sector, communication, governance, human resource development, education and health sectors.
Projects reviewed includes worth Rs 475 billion projects related to energy sector while projects worth Rs 134 billion were of infrastructure development projects including roads, bridges and highways.
The Minister said that in foreign aided projects, Ministries and development partners should work together at design stage to ensure buy in of all the stakeholders to avoid delays due to subsequent disagreements”.
The Minister ordered inquiries into projects with cost over runs and delays.