ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has rated the “Pakistan Community Support Project (CASA-1000)” implementation satisfactory, which was aimed at improving access to local infrastructure and strengthening community engagement in the project areas.

Official documents revealed that the current disbursement rate is 64 percent (US 9.63 million dollars out of $15 million); of this amount, $ 5.67 million (about 59 percent of the disbursed amount) has been utilised so far.

Revision of PC-1 and Operations Manual is underway and needs to be completed immediately, given the changes in operations over the course of the past two years, and in line with the extension of the project until June 2023.

Most of the agreed actions have been completed. Activities focused mainly on completing the opening of bank accounts of remaining CDCs, SPRAC approvals for targeted 166 community sub-projects and initiation of civil works.

World Bank extends CASA-1000 closing date

At the time of the current mission, all CDCs are operational, and 149 out of 166 community infrastructure sub-projects stand approved, with the remaining 17 additional sub-projects to be approved at the end of October.

Civil works for 103 sub-projects are under implementation by the CDCs themselves and are at different stages of completion. Cheques for up to three installments have been distributed to the CDCs for civil works, while six sub-projects have been completed at the end of August.

The current disbursement rate is 64 percent ($9.63 million out of $15 million); of this amount, $ 5.67 million (about 59 percent of the disbursed amount) has been utilised so far. Revision of PC-1 and Operations Manual is underway and needs to be completed immediately, given the changes in operations over the course of the past two years, and in line with the extension of the project until June 2023. This was discussed during the mission and will be achieved by end of October 2022 based on the recommendations.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022