MoF wants ministries to get its consent for multi-year projects

 Kathmandu, Sept. 6

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has written to the relevant ministries and concerned agencies to proceed with the multi-year contract agreements only after prior consultation with the former.

Mahesh Bhattarai, Spokesperson for the MoF, informed that the Ministry has made correspondence with various ministries and agencies to make the budget implementation and resource management effective for the current Fiscal Year 2024/25.

The Finance Ministry has also requested to prepare a list of high-priority projects with immediate results and a relatively high allocation of funds before asking for a multi-year contract agreement this year.

Similarly, it requested them to provide the details of the projects and the amount of obligation, which went through the multi-year procurement process in the last Fiscal Year 2024/25, and the liability of funds it will create in the next FY 2025/26.

In the correspondence, the ministries should mention the percentage of the amount that would remain as the liability under the medium-term expenditure framework for the next year.

The MoF has also asked for the details of the projects completed in the last fiscal year, funds allocated if the budget was frozen or the request for transfer of funds was made to the MoF but no decision was taken, payment liability created due to the non-inclusion of the said projects and programmes in the budget of this year and the details of the resources that can be managed, have been prepared for and available.

The ministries have also been asked to suggest alternatives for the budget transfer from the projects of the current year in case of insufficient budget for the projects, programmes and activities that were included in the budget of this year.

Similarly, for the projects and programmes included in the annual budget of 2024/25 and preparation of which is not completed, have received a very small amount of funds against the cost and are not possible to be implemented, the ministries should submit the details of them and halt their execution. 

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 September 2024.