Despite the Sindh government constituting committee after committee for ensuring transparent distribution of Rs 700 million for community development among 27 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), no committee has furnished a monitoring report to the authorities concerned during the past three years – leaving an impression that these funds were distributed among the blue-eyed civil society organisations, Pakistan Today has reliably learnt.
Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that although each provincial department has its own Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the welfare of masses besides special packages for backward areas, some influential officials of Planning and Development (P&D) Department had included a scheme titled ‘Community development programme through civil society organisations and other including corporate sector’ in 2009 with an allocation of at least Rs 200 million.
Surprisingly, the budget allocation for the community development project suddenly rose to Rs 500 million in 2010-11 and the whole amount was distributed among the same NGOs. Realising that something fishy was going on, then Additional Chief Secretary (P&D) Munawar Opel had issued a notification No PO(M)CDP-27/CSOS/09 dated December 1, 2009 forming a committee tasked to monitor fund utilisation and evaluate activities undertaken by 27 partner civil society organisations (CSOs).
The committee comprised P&D Department Monitoring and Evaluation Cell Director General Abdul Rafique Leghari and Community Development Programme Manager Muhammad Iqbal Lakho, Chief Economist Noorul Haq, Aga Khan University (AKU) Institute for Educational Development’s Kulsoom Jaffer and Education Department head Faheem Akhtar. Later, another committee was formed to furnish a report about the performance of the NGOs.
The committee comprised AKU Community Health Services (CHS) Chairman Dr Zulfikar Bhutta, AKU CHS Associate Professor Dr Abdul Hakeem Jokhio, P&D Department Community Development Programme Coordinator Seema Najeeb, Monitoring and Evaluation Cell Director Inayatullah Qureshi and Health Department Assistant Chief Shahnaz Siddiqui.
Yet another committee – comprising Water Sector Improvement Project Provincial Coordinator Dr Abdul Salam Memon, P&D Department Physical Planning and Housing Section Head Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) water analyst Ghulam Qadir Shah, World Wildlife Fund analyst Jamal Shoro and consultant Engineer Naseer Memon – was formed for the purpose that also failed to sbmit its report.
Interestingly, another committee with Special Secretary (Tech) Rehana Ghulam Ali, Sindh Rural Support Organisation senior analyst Riazuddin, UNDP Devolution Trust for Community Empowerment Manager Field Operations Aijaz Ali Khuwaja, Assistant Chief (Education) Piyaro Khan Naich, Union Council-Based Poverty Reduction Programme Director Bilal Memon and P&D Department Monitoring and Evaluation Cell Deputy Director Ghulam Qadir Sheikh was also constituted, however, with the same result.
According to sources, the committees were to overview and examine the performance of the CSOs on account of project activities under the community development programme, besides verifying and analysing financial statements (Sindh government funding and CSO contribution), and ascertain that the expenditures were made as per merit and through transparent procedures towards the achievements set under the project document.
Moreover, the committees were to analyse the social/overall impact of the activities for the betterment of communities addressed under the project and submit their report within a period of nine day after their constitution. However, no report has been submitted till date since 2009.
