Kathmandu, Jan. 1:
Minister for Finance
Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada has said that implementing federalism and keeping the
development projects with the federal government was against the spirit of the
new political structure of the country.
"Some development
partners and government agencies are asking the central government to keep many
important projects with it. It's paradoxical. If we have to execute federalism
in true spirit, projects should be implemented by the respected local
bodies," he said while talking to The
Rising Nepal on Tuesday.
According to him, the
development partners are raising questions about the expenditure and monitoring
capacity of local bodies, and their account system and asking the federal
government to keep the projects with it.
At the same time, some
of the projects are delayed because the required document, programme structure
and other details couldn't be sent to the sub-national levels in time, he said.
There is another
crucial concern about the capacity of the provincial and local governments.
The central government
is for carrying the issues of capacity development of the provinces and
devolution of rights but provinces are demanding that their right should be
immediately practiced.
Dr. Khatiwada said that
the confusion about the development projects would be addressed within the
current fiscal year through the enactment of various laws and formulation of
timely policies.
Recently concluded
meetings of Inter-Provincial Council and Inter-Government Fiscal Council have
prepared work procedures on the lists of rights, operating and executing
development projects which will help in resolving the conflict and confusion
among the various levels of governments.
"From the
management aspects, federalism has been accomplished except a few legal
provisions in terms of common areas of various governments and subjects that
needed to be handed over to the provinces by the federal and to local bodies by
the provincial governments," he said.
But, there are many
things to do about financial management.
The Finance Minister
has focused to creating and managing information technology based financial and
account system.
"It is crucial to
have capable local governments for the better functioning of federalism. The
National Planning Commission, National Natural Resource and Fiscal Commission,
Office of Auditor General and other stakeholders should put their joint efforts
to enhance the capacity of the local bodies," he said.
"They have to
develop the Mid-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which is not the cup of tea
of most of the local governments. They have to be trained on prioritizing
development expenditure and utilising it in a productive way. There should be
an effective coordination among the three level of the government," he
added.
Likewise, he said that
the capital expenditure was satisfactory but it was not exhibited in the
reports due to delay in the payment.
"I have seen that
there is a culture to wait till the end of the fiscal year to make the
payment," he said.
He also said that in
terms of the new projects delay was natural since the government had to
formulate new working procedure, bylaws and make other necessary preparations
while some of the programmes were lagging behind because their Detailed Project
Report (DPR) couldn't be concluded in time.
Dr. Khatiwada said that
development projects had witnessed glitches time and again due to the poor
understanding of development and insufficient discussion about the programmes
at the political level, and lack of capacity in the private sector.
He is hopeful about
attaining high economic growth.
"We are amongst a
few countries in the world that witnessed higher than 6 per cent growth for
three consecutive years. But there is a need of a heavy invest on capital
formation in order to sustain the current growth. Large infrastructure should be the
development priority and those projects should be completed on time," he
said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 2 January 2019.
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