‘Friends’ for proper utilisation of funds

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi gestures during a Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) meeting in Islamabad. – Photo by AFP (File)

ISLAMABAD: At the ongoing meeting of Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) in Brussels the international community has asked Islamabad to involve renowned experts in bidding and implementation of flood-related reconstruction projects to ensure transparency and effective utilisation of funds.

“The international community wants that the money is used well… We have proposed involvement of national and international experts in the bidding and contract award process to start reconstruction quickly,” Juan Miranda, the Asian Development Bank’s director-general for Central and West Asia, told Dawn.

“The best way to award contracts for reconstruction is to engage independent experts and there is no disagreement on this between the World Bank and ADB and the government,” he said.

In a telephone interview from Brussels, Mr Miranda said the lenders had proposed that either the government agencies engage experts to prepare paperwork, commission contracts and sign agreements with monitoring by lending agencies or “we can engage experts and prepare paperwork and then assist the government agencies in project management”.

He said there were certain well-established procurement rules through which bidding documents could be prepared. “Our objective is to assist and not to take away the government’s implementation responsibility. This is important because all the stakeholders want the reconstruction to start sooner and to ensure transparent and efficient use of funds specifically for the purpose they are allocated.”

Talking about the damage and need assessment report prepared by the ADB and World Bank, he said the damages had been estimated at $9.7 billion while reconstruction estimates range between $7 and $9 billion. But this did not mean the two figures be put together, he said.

source Dawn news