PESHAWAR, May 21: The NWFP government’s inability to achieve targets and benchmarks set for the first year of implementation of the World Bank funded provincial reforms programme drew reservations from the members of a visiting review mission of the lending agency, sources told Dawn here on Wednesday.

The province could not improve its revenue base failing to meet revenue targets set under various heads of the provincial own receipts.

Similarly, the provincial government’s failure to improve its social sector spending (development and current expenditure) during the first nine months of the current financial year provided basis to the visiting mission to raise reservations about the effectiveness of the provincial reforms programme (PRP).

The World Bank released first tranche of $90 million under its Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) programme to NWFP at the start of the current financial year to support its cross sectoral PRP.

The sources in the health and education departments told Dawn that the visiting World Bank members, including senior economists and subject specialists, in their meetings with the provincial government’s departments concerned expressed concern over the low utilization of SAC funds during the first three quarters of the current financial year.

The PRP — drawn upon the goals and strategies of the country’s Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper — encompasses governance, devolution and financial management reforms to expand and improve the delivery of social services, particularly health and education across the province.

After most of the targets remained unmet at the close of the first year of implementation, the provincial authorities concerned talking to Dawn said that the targets set by the last provincial government were unrealistic and ‘over ambitious’.

Health and education sectors’ current and development expenditures during the first three quarters remained much less than the amount the province should have spent under the SAC, a three-tranche credit of an equivalent amount of $90 million.

Under the agreement second tranche (to be released in the financial year 2003-04) would depend on the achievement of sectoral targets.

The World Bank mission led by its Washington-based senior economist Paul Wade held meetings with senior authorities of the departments, including finance, communication and works, planning and development, excise and taxation, education, health, irrigation in addition to the authorities of the NWFP Board of Revenue and the Accountant General of NWFP.

The second review mission that visited NWFP to assess the PRP’s performance during the first six months of the current financial year had also expressed reservations viz-a-viz slow utilization of the SAC funds.