The NWFP government is likely to ask World Bank for extension in the NWFP-Emergency Rehabilitation Project (NERP) by July 2007, six months before the closure of the project, sources in the department of Planning & Development told Business Recorder. The decision has been taken during a meeting of NWFP officials with World Bank Mission last month.
The meeting chaired by the additional chief secretary was attended by World Bank official Tumurdavaa Bayarsaihan, additional secretary planning & development and project co-ordinator monitoring unit (PCMU).
During the course of discussion, the PCMU informed that the implementation status of the project would become clear after four months and only then the option of extension would be considered. The chair decided that the extension would be considered 6 months before the project closure, ie July 2007.
About the current status of the implementation of the project, the meeting asked the PCMU to keep track of the financial progress and ensure that the payments are made according to the service standards set for payment and to bring the cases of delayed payment by districts to the notice of the provincial government.
The mission official informed that significant progress has been achieved in the implementation of NERP Programme. To date the district governments had identified and approved 718 sub-projects costing Rs 1.5 billion for the World Bank assisted NWFP-Emergency Rehabilitation Project (NERP) in The physical progress, he said, was 30 percent and the financial is 16 percent compared with 1 percent observed during the mission's the visit in November last year.
The mission, he said, was satisfied with the quality of civil works of the sub-projects they visited. However, he expressed concern over the gap between the physical and planning progress and requested for diminishing the same. The project coordinator NERP attributed the same to the fact that physical reporting is done before financial reporting.
The meeting further asked the PCMU to prepare a monitoring strategy to be shared with the World Bank. The Project Coordinator informed that the monitoring aspect is fully taken care of and the PCMU monitoring teams are often in the field to follow up the progress and quality of work. The reports of their recent findings have been shared with the World Bank.
The meeting also decided that the line departments would have to submit their demands to the PCMU for consideration, saying the staff of the department at district level over-stretched and therefore, their mobility needs to be facilitated at least in context of POL and M&R of the vehicles. Regarding inclusion of flood protection works in the NERP programme, the meeting asked PCMU to make formal request for inclusion of flood protection works to the World Bank.
During the course of discussion regarding the scope of work in the Project Agreement, the Mission Leader informed that it reflects rehabilitation of civil canals mainly whereas in NERP portfolio some flood protection works are also included. The meeting further decided that the request of community infrastructure Project (CIP-II) would be considered against additional resources of World Bank.