The World Bank has proposed that the Punjab Municipal Services Improvement Project should extend from December 31, 2010 to November 30, 2012 for promotion of the institutional development (ID) activities to a broader set of Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMAs) in the Punjab to ensure consolidation of benefits and sustainability of achievements to date.
The recommended modifications also envisage a number of additional interim outcome indicators agreed with the Government of Punjab, to support monitoring and evaluation of the impacts created at TMA level. In order to accommodate these modifications the current Project Closing Date will need to be extended by twenty-three months from December 31, 2010 to November 30, 2012, World Bank report added.
In a Restructuring Paper, Country Director of World Bank Rachid Benmessaoud said that the recently completed detailed assessment of project components indicates that PMSIP is showing promising results towards meeting its Project Development Objective (PDO). The assessment in particular confirmed that ID initiatives undertaken by the Project are directly contributing to the achievement of the PDO. Although the project disbursements have been low, these are mainly in the infrastructure development sub-component.
This owes to the conscious decision of administering and managing subprojects through TMAs and not through province-executed vertical programs - with the objectives of enhancing infrastructure development capacities of TMAs and inculcating modern contract management standards and practices in TMAs in the execution of their developmental works. Moreover, the deterioration in the overall security situation and continuing ambiguity on the future of the local government system have adversely affected decision-making by TMA leadership, reduced the pace of sub-project implementation, and in turn disbursements.
Rachid Benmessaoud mentioned that the major achievements of the project vis-à-vis the PDO lie mainly in the strategic-institutional domain as the sustained capacity building activities completed by the project have helped in fundamentally improving the procedural and systemic effectiveness of TMAs, by introducing a culture of performance-based management at the TMA level. The improved systems and procedures provide sustainable and replicable models for scaling-up that have been thoroughly tried, tested, customised, and adapted at the TMA level. These in turn set the stage for: (a) further deepening and consolidating impacts created in the partner TMAs through establishment of enabling policy frameworks by the provincial government, and their due incentivization; and (b) broadening of similar ID activities and procedural reform to a larger set of TMAs.
On the infrastructure development side, eight out of the nineteen subprojects undertaken have been successfully completed and have started operations. In the water supply sector, four (4) sub-projects serving a population of 419,853 have been completed to date while eight (8) sub-projects with a target population of 570,449 are under implementation. Similarly, three (3) roads construction/rehabilitation sub-projects have been completed while one (1) is still pending. In all, 15.63 Km of roads are targeted in this sector, bulk of which has been completed. Sub-projects still under progress include water supply schemes, roads, and solid waste management systems.
He said that the Cultural Heritage subcomponent has made good progress towards: (a) undertaking studies to recommend rationalisation of institutional mandates for management of heritage assets; (b) appropriate amendments to the existing legislative framework; and (c) preparatory activities towards implementing a pilot project, which includes the creation of a Heritage Trail, to showcase methods and benefits of conservation of cultural assets and their productive re/use. However, while implementation of the pilot has commenced, it has faced recurrent delays and requires more time for completion.
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