-WDD should justify the discrepancies found in financial data: DGM&E
LAHORE: The training of one thousand women in labour and domestic work, as well as their placement in decent work conditions, remains unsuccessful due to the laxity of Women Development Department (WDD) whereas the department has also been found in financial discrepancies, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
Pakistan Today also learnt that the WDD planned in May 2014 to start a project titled ‘Training of 1000 Women Domestic Workers with ILO Assistance’ however the international labor organization (ILO) was partner in the project and ILO was committed to bear the 94 percent cost of the proposed project whereas the college of Tourism and Hotel Management (COTHM) and All Pakistan Women’s Association (APWA) Punjab were also engaged as training and placement partners.
COTHM was responsible for developing the curriculum training of trainers and the first batch of training, formal certification and support for job placement of trained women whereas the APWA premises were decided for the training and its staff members were proposed to train as co-facilitators who were decided to impart the training to the domestic workers in subsequent batches.
The project was aimed at enhancing the competency level of domestic workers for delivery of better service to the employees and their orientation to cope up domesticated requirements.
The directorate general monitoring and evaluation (DGM&E) has issued a report, a copy of which is available with this scribe, which states, “As per PC-I the total project cost was 12.813 million, out of 12.813 million 0.825 million was ADP funds while the rest RS. 11.988 million was from ILO but the total project cost was not provided in PC-IV. The bifurcation of the utilisation of ADP and ILO funds was not provided by the department and the discrepancies found in financial data as the total releases from ILO was Rs13,171,009 million while the expenditure was Rs13,421,914 million. The department needs to justify the difference. Another discrepancy found in PC-IV the total expenditure of the project is Rs13, 421,914 million while the total expenditure component-wise Rs13,401, 687 million”.
“The project was not completed within planned gestation period. The project had to be completed on 26.11.2014 whereas, the actual completion was 31.3.2016. The project was not designed properly as Training Need Assessment (TNA) was not conducted by WDD due to this all the trainees doing irrelevant jobs for raising their income. Job placement office was established and a job placement officer was also hired but this office unable to provide the services to place the trainees in the job market,” the report further states.
“Selection Criteria to select the target population for training was not well defined. The project recurring cost was Rs. 5.18 Million mentioned in PC-I while there is no further detail was provided in PC-IV. Operational cost Rs. 5.18 million for SNE was given in PC-I but PC-IV operational cost was not mentioned,” it adds.
The DGM&E in its recommendation states, “In designing phase of projects, there should be Training Need Assessment for the project, to ensure the proper utilization of donor funding. Selection criteria should be well defined to target the population which needs the training. The department should justify the reason for discrepancies found in financial data and the job placement office should provide effective job placement services for trainees”.