Ending unnecessary delays

According to a Recorder Report, the National Economic Council (NEC) has approved a Planning Commission proposal that aims to address inordinate delays in the execution of various public sector development projects.
It is hardly a coincidence that the proposal has come to light just as the Planning Commission's central body on development gave its go-ahead, in the last week of February, to 25 development projects worth Rs 28.85 billion.
These projects relate to energy, water resources development, health, physical planning and housing, environment, higher education, transport and communication, governance, industries and commerce, and Information Technology.
As those associated with the execution of development projects in this country are well aware, lack of an effective implementation machinery, for long, has been adversely impacting work in the sector.
The rate of delays in project completion runs as high as 40 percent. A range of problems, from tardy supply of funds to issues of corruption, faulty management and design, are responsible for the delays. Project delays invariably lead to cost overruns, creating further complications.
The Planning Commission's proposal promises to address some of the main causes of unnecessary slowdowns and/or stoppages that prevent timely completion of development schemes. Pointing out that the Finance Ministry is equally responsibly for the situation, the Planning Commission has proposed that a new procedure be evolved with a view to placing funds directly at the disposal of project heads.
The Auditor-General of Pakistan has also been directed, in any event, to avoid raising repeated objections on requests for the release of funds. That, of course, does not mean that the project managers would be free to spend money as they like.
The Planning Commission, which has the necessary know-how as well as manpower, is supposed to monitor development activities. Presumably, it regularly sends its monitoring reports to the relevant authorities in the government, with a view to enabling them to evaluate the progress of various projects on a continual basis. However, projects get held up even when the supply of funds runs smoothly.
Lack of management resources and co-ordination mechanism being the other problems. NEC has decided to deal with design and management issues through the establishment of Core Management Units, especially for large donor assisted projects.
Those to be given the responsibility for managing these projects are to be associated with their assigned task at the inception stage. This should prove helpful in removing some of the bothersome bottlenecks. But there is also an urgent need to upgrade the provinces' respective delivery mechanisms, which present an appalling picture of inefficiency and neglect.
Clearly, the provinces need to adopt a pro-active approach to build sound delivery systems so that the ordinary people can reap the benefits that the different development schemes propose to bring them.