Kathmandu, June 19
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said on Wednesday that the
government had no chance to make any mistakes in terms of development.
Stating that the government was in a difficult situation as
various forces, including political and non-political powers, were trying to
defame it and create a negative image, he directed the ministries to expedite
the monitoring of the development projects and put additional efforts to
complete all development projects in time.
"I am aware that the new political system has created
some confusion, but we should be happy that we have been able to establish
federal system within a very short span of time. There have been no significant
problems while the economic growth has caught high trajectory," he said
while addressing the 45th meeting of the National Development Action
Committee (NDAC) at the National Planning Commission.
He said that the encouraging economic indicators should
motivate the ministries to achieve more.
According to Prime Minister Oli, since federalism is being institutionalised,
sub-national governments are more experienced, and multiple system have been
developed to facilitate cooperation and coordination among the different level
of government, the country will achieve 8.5 per cent growth rate next year.
He asked the ministers and other agencies to identify the
fast way of national development and providing facilities to the people in a prompt
and effective way.
"The rights and resources have been devolved to the
subnational governments with the aim of delivering fast and reliable services
to the people. Create opportunities for better life," he directed.
The Prime Minister also said that the progress of the
national pride projects was not satisfactory and the situation called for
finding solutions to it at the earliest.
We have to work for better project preparation, and the contractors
who cannot complete project in time should be disqualified as they incurred a
serious loss to the country, he said.
"The delay in completing the projects causes cost
overrun which creates additional burden to the state coffers and the country
will be deprived of the benefits form the project," said PM Oli.
Finance Minister Dr. Yuba Raj Khatiwada said that as the
development projects were not distributed in an equitable way in all the
provinces in the past, there was an imbalance in conditional grants.
"It will be improved in the days to come. There is a
need for greater cooperation among the federal and provincial planning bodies
and government is required," he said.
He said that the government was making a mechanism whereby
the revenue collected by the federal and sub-national government will
automatically deposited in the divisible fund and the share of money will be
sent to the respective governments.
"Some projects' management has come back to the federal
government which has decreased the conditional grant to the respective
provincial and local bodies," he said while responding to the complaints
of the Chief Minister of Province 2 Lal Babu Raut who said that the grant money
to the federal government was cut down.
CM Raut said that the federal government should have
empowered the provinces by providing technical experts and consultants while
preparing the provincial policies.
"There is very poor cooperation and
collaboration," he said.
Chief Minister of Sudurpaschim Trilochan Bhatta said that
poor project preparation was resulted in poor implementation and capital
expenditure. He also said that there was duplication of budget among the
federal and subnational governments.
Auditor General Tanka Mani Sharma Dangal urged the ministers
to clear the arrears of their respective ministries.
"There is a need to change the accounting methods. We
have to develop a system to clear the past arrears and not to make arrears in
future," he said.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 20 June 2019.
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