Deputy Chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan (PCP) Dr Nadeem Ul Haq has said that in order to understand public service delivery and growth in the country, implementation of the projects and the mechanism of their delivery to the people needs to be understood. He was addressing a ceremony while launching the Public Sector Development Projects (PSDP) Report.
The PSDP report shows that projects tend to suffer because of the lack of professional management capacity in the country. Continuing fiscal policy difficulties have not only starved projects of financing but have also made funding volatile at the cost of project implementation. Cost overruns and penalties are continuously being incurred as a result, said the report.
Several important problems have been identified in the monitoring process which this report summarizes. Land acquisition remains variable that is continuously inflating costs. Inadequate reports that lack well prepared feasibilities, clear project management plans often lead to confused implementation such as unsynchronized procurement and construction.
Finally, the report mentioned that there seems to be limited planning on post completion maintenance or effective administration of the project for maximising benefits to the people.
Dr Nadeem said that the Planning Commission’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (MEU) plays a key role in streamlining project implementation within approved time, cost and scope. The use of public resources must be clearly seen to benefit the people of the country, he said. The PCP’s reports to the people must make apparent both the good points as well as the emerging problems in the project implementation process. Ultimately the goal is to deliver better assets and services to the people.
The planning mechanism has been the “Public Sector Development Plan” and the “projects” it funds. Through nine plans, visions and researches, the Planning Commission has tried to work this mandate. The implementation and execution of the PSDP funded projects however may not be enough in the backdrop of rapidly growing population and an increased demand for provision of social services and infrastructure facilities, but had brought relief to the general public at large , positively contributing to the national economy, he said.
He said that Government endeavors to ensure provision of basic facilities to a major portion of population and further plans to extend these to all the provinces and regions of the country through fiscal decentralisation and resources transfer as per NFC award.
In order to disseminate pertinent information to the concerned stakeholders in the national development process, the planning Commission has complied information on the PSDP projects completed during financial year 2009-10. There were three volumes, containing information on these completed projects which have been prepared by the Projects Wing Planning Commission that includes identification and preparation, appraisal, approval and execution, completion and evaluation.
Dr Nadeem said that Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (MEU) of PSP is continually trying to provide useful guidelines to give feed back to policy makers to make adequate improvements for better utilisation of available resources. The use of public resources must be clearly seen to benefit the people of the country. PCP’s reporting to the people must make apparent both the good points as well as the emerging problems in the project implementation process, he said.
