LAHORE, July 24: The Punjab government on Thursday announced establishing a Provincial Monitoring Cell (PMC) at the Planning and Development Department to monitor execution of development projects in the province.

The PMC will monitor and ensure transparent utilization of funds, timely execution of schemes and quality of work.

The constitution of the cell was announced by Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi at a meeting held to finalize his monitoring policy for development projects in the province as well as to review the progress on their implementation.

The chief minister said the “new system of inspection had been evolved for performing a supervisory role in respect of development projects”. He stated: “It is obligatory for the P&D department to execute monitoring system in an integrated manner”.

The international standards, he stated, of project management, planning, and monitoring will be adhered to.

The chief minister also directed the CM Inspection Team (CMIT) to ensure the implementation of the programme for providing “missing” facilities to 60,000 schools being run in the public sector under the Education Reforms Programme (ERP).

He asked the CMIT to supervize schemes that were identified by the P&D chairman and directed both to develop a close liaison for an early execution of the projects.

The chief minister also emphasized the need for rehabilitation and repair of existing roadworks in the province. The maintenance and repair budget of Rs6.75 billion had already been allocated in the budget for 2003-04 for providing infrastructure for schools, colleges and hospitals and lining of canals. He said a mechanism needed to be devised for proper utilization of funds.

He sounded a warning to the officials involved in unnecessary delay of execution of development schemes, saying strict action would be taken against them.