–Project costing Rs 178.291m to maintain record of animals, diseases faces delay
–CNIC-based database of farmers to provide free service remains incomplete
LAHORE: The Punjab Livestock and Dairy Development (PL&DD) has failed to meet the physical targets of its project titled “Strengthening of Performance and Management System and Capacity Building of Livestock & Dairy Development (L&DD) Staff” as the department could not prepare a Computerized National Identification Card (CNIC) based database, Pakistan Today learnt through reliable sources.
Sources in the PL&DD told Pakistan Today that a project was approved to improve the service delivery, document and maintain livestock data regarding types of animals and their geographical spread over the province, diseases and patterns of diseases in terms of region and seasons.
The project was initially given a green signal by the Departmental Development Sub Committee (DDSC) on September 19, 2014, and revised on February 02, 2016, with the completion date of June 30, 2017. The government-sponsored project was supposed to cost Rs 178.291 million after revision from the initial cost of Rs 90 million, they added.
The project was part of the annual development programme, sources said, adding that the main objective was to monitor and collect data online through mobile phones and gadgets.
Sources further added, “The project was evaluated by Directorate General Monitoring and Evaluation (DGM&E) in August 2017 and rated as exceptionally successful and was discussed in the 124th Evaluation Committee Meeting (ECM). The ECM committee decided one-year conditional SNE [Schedule of New Expenditure]. The project would be evaluated after one year as per decisions of ECM and continuity of SNE was subject to fulfillment of the decisions.”
“As per the decisions the CNIC should be made a primary key in saving the data of farmers, security of the 9211 system should be ensured by applying several security protocols through vendor, a report should be presented that would show the amount of finances that PL&DD is able to save since the deployment of this system and census to be conducted to tap the maximum farmers throughout the province.”
The PL&DD at the time of decisions was of the view that in rural areas people normally do not carry CNIC and department cannot deny services to anyone whereas the DGM&E recommended that farmer should be educated regarding link between continuity of free service and provision of CNIC, sources told.
Another recent evaluation report on the same project by DGM&E states, “The provision of CNIC is implemented in 9211 system but it is not enforced by the department. Every farmer does not remember or carry CNIC all the time and sometimes children show up for service so they remember phone number but not CNIC. The animal census of 2018 was conducted based on CNIC number in 25,892 villages of Punjab.”
“The census report is published by the department highlighting different categories of animals and there spread across the province. However, this census was carried out on House Number scheme, just like human census. The CNIC should be stored as per last ECM decision. The department needs to educate and develop trust level with farmer and if a farmer is registered with no animal and at time of availing service, there should be a facility that the number of animals of the farmers may be updated.”
Another objective of the project was to present a report. Although the results were partially achieved, the report did not reflect the benefits of the project in monetary terms.
While talking to Pakistan Today, PL&DD Director Communication Dr Asif Rafiq said, “After the observations of DGM&E, we have started to prepare the CNIC database of farmers. Initially the unique Identification of the farmers for 9211 was their mobile number but now their CNIC number is the unique ID in the system”.