ISLAMABAD, Nov 11: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a technical assistance (TA) grant worth $0.48 million to strengthen portfolio performance and monitoring capacity of the Planning and Development Division and Departments of the Federal and Provincial governments.

The government’s development investment programme has increased substantially over the years both in terms of finance and number of projects in the portfolio.

According to an announcement made here on Monday by the local ADB office, the PSDP allocation for 2001-2002 amounts to Rs130 billion for over 600 projects. The composition of the portfolio has also undergone a significant change in terms of sector priorities, with focus on poverty reduction, governance, social development, and beneficiary and stakeholders participation. As a result, the capacity problem has become the most serious constraining factor for line ministries and executing agencies to effectively implement projects and meet their development objectives. Consequently project implementation delays are common. Further, the monitoring and evaluation systems for projects are weak and need to be strengthened.

ADB’s technical assistance will provide support to the government to improve the efficiency of the project implementation system and strengthen the monitoring system of portfolio performance on key project activities.

The existing weaknesses and reasons for delay in project implementation will be identified, and the required remedial steps addressed. The TA will also develop a comprehensive data base for key project activities and financial performance to strengthen the monitoring system of Planning and Development departments with appropriate networking arrangement established for constant flow of information. Finally, the TA will identify core staff requirement and logistic support for the portfolio monitoring system, define their responsibilities, and provide extensive training for capacity building.

The Federal Planning and Development Division will be the executing agency for this TA, and the project wing at the division together with the provincial planning and development departments will be the implementing agencies.