Planning Commission Expresses Dissatisfaction as Government Agencies Struggle to Improve Project Bank System

The government-initiated Project Bank concept, designed to enhance budget allocation and expenditure efficiency, currently remains largely a formality. The National Planning Commission has issued directives along with a checklist to ministries and subordinate agencies to improve data entry for projects. The commission has identified issues with the upload of uncertified documents, ambiguous reports, and unapproved environmental study reports.

Kathmandu, Chaitra 20, 2079 (April 3, 2023) – The Project Bank concept, implemented by the government to improve budget allocation and spending efficacy, remains limited to a procedural exercise. Previous governments exploited this system for their own interests, and even after the new administration took charge of ministries, the approach has largely been to maintain the system superficially. This has led to dissatisfaction within the National Planning Commission.

In light of these challenges, the Planning Commission has sent formal communication to ministries and their subordinate bodies, instructing them to make further improvements in project data entry. Currently, various stages are ongoing for the preparation of the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84 budget. Although the initial deadline for project entry into the Project Bank was March 15 (1 Chaitra), the commission extended it to April 5 (22 Chaitra). Nevertheless, most of the submitted project documents are incomplete, uncertified, and unclear, necessitating revisions.

Accordingly, on April 1 (16 Chaitra), the commission finalized further decisions and issued guidelines with a checklist to the ministries, departments, and relevant entities for corrective action. The concerned bodies must now resubmit project details already entered into the Project Bank Management Information System using a new format.

Prior to budget presentation, the trend of adding numerous projects often driven by political motives resulted in thousands of large projects being included. The government has committed to making the Project Bank implementation more effective in the forthcoming budget cycle. The Project Bank policy mandates inclusion of projects only if they have completed preparation phases or are under active implementation.

Areas Requiring Further Improvement

The commission points out that major issues include the absence of official office stamps and proper signatures on proposed reports, along with uncertified and unclear documents. Moving forward, detailed project study or engineering reports must be officially certified by authorized personnel and bear the office stamp before uploading. When submitting reports, key sections such as cover pages, cost estimates, design drawings, and other critical pages must be clearly visible, certified by department heads or project chiefs, and affixed with the office stamp.

Environmental Study Reports

Currently, environmental study reports entered by ministries lack official letters of approval or signatures/stamps of approving authorities. Some unauthorized study reports have also been uploaded. Henceforth, ministries and agencies must certify approved environmental study reports through departmental or project heads and upload them with the official office stamp. For projects requiring Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), the Ministry of Forests and Environment and other relevant ministries must upload the respective approval letters. If unnecessary, a letter stating reasons must be uploaded.

Land Acquisition for Projects

The commission has instructed corrections because documentation related to land acquisition is often incomplete, uncertified, and irrelevant. Details such as area required, type of land, estimated costs, etc., must be clearly indicated and certified by the department or project chief with an office stamp. If land acquisition is unnecessary, a clear statement to that effect must be included in the documentation.

Procurement Plans

Currently, ministries and agencies frequently upload annual procurement plans or frameworks certified by project heads but without official office stamps. The commission has directed that procurement plans must be certified by an accountable financial officer according to existing procurement laws before uploading. It further clarified that annual procurement plans must be certified by the departmental or project head and include the official stamp.

Implementation Work Plans / Result Frameworks

There are existing issues with ambiguity, lack of certification, and repeated copy-pasting in project submissions. From now, the top section of implementation work plans must openly state the project name and be certified by the department or project chief and stamped officially. Similar issues were noted in result frameworks, for which the commission recommends analogous improvements. Monitoring and evaluation work plans also require similar corrective actions.

Request to Avoid Uploading Ongoing or Annual Nature Projects

The commission has urged agencies not to enter projects that are ongoing or implemented annually into the Project Bank. When entering study projects, the cost associated with the study phase must also be disclosed.