July 30, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 19,1423

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ISLAMABAD, July 29: The World Bank will extend $150 million for strengthening the accountability and reporting project which supports the government goals to improve public financial management and restore the integrity of state institutions.

Official sources said the objective of the plan was to increase the “accuracy, completeness, reliability, and timeliness of intra-year and year-end government financial reports in Pakistan at the national, provincial and district level.”

The project aims at providing the government and the people of Pakistan with credible financial data in a reliable, comprehensive and timely manner at the national, provincial, district and tehsil levels with vital financial performance information throughout the year.

The project will also enhance the government capacity for designing a medium-term framework to prepare budgets on a rolling three-year basis and strengthen the government’s administrative and management powers.

However, the World Bank believed that the sustainability of the projects depended upon continued government commitment to the reform agenda.

The World Bank said that learning lessons from the past operations, a comprehensive reform was essential for the implementation of the capacity enhancement projects to succeed, and implementing agencies must include staff who were prepared to act as agents of change in order to maintain the momentum of improvements.