E-Kantipur

KATHMANDU, APR 20 -

The Ministry of Finance has violated the budgetary provision by releasing budget to five projects failing to get reimbursement form donors. As per the provision, projects failing to get their budget reimbursed by their donors will not be sanctioned resources.

These projects are Kabuliyet Forest and Livestock Development Project, School Sector Reform, Western High-Hill Poverty Alleviation Project, Decentralised Rural Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Programme and USAID Pool Fund, according to Financial Comptroller General Office (FCGO). “We released the budget for these projects for the second four months as per the ministry’s direction,” said Narayan Niraula, deputy financial comptroller general at FCGO.

This year’s budget has allocated around Rs 18 billion for these five projects involving domestic resources as well as foreign aid. However, the budget has provisioned that resources will not be sanctioned if they fail to get reimbursement from donors on time. “As reimbursements worth a substantial amount for foreign-aided projects have remained unclaimed, it will be made mandatory from the current fiscal year to submit expenditure details and audit reports to donors to get the budget released,” sates the budget for the current fiscal year. “The budget will be withheld for projects failing to claim reimbursements on time.”

However, Bodh Raj Niraula, joint secretary at the ministry, said the ministry released the budget on condition that the projects should get reimbursement within a certain period. “It is not practical to stop important work,” said Niraula.

As a result of the budgetary provision, there has been a significant progress in getting reimbursement from donors. According to FCGO, of the total Rs 32.21 billion unsettled refunds of the last fiscal, only Rs 9.5 billion has remained outstanding as of mid-March this year.

Nepal has already received more than Rs 22 billion from development partners and the government has adjusted Rs 657 million as of Mid-March. To implement the budgetary provision, FCGO has also the prepared a checklist for projects to get their budget sanctioned.

According to the FCGO’s checklist, projects are required to claim the entire outstanding reimbursement as of the first four months of the current fiscal year to get their budget released for the last four months. Timely reimbursement would also help reduce the country’s balance of payment deficit that stands at Rs 12 billion as of mid-February.

Posted on: 2011-04-20 09:18

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