ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: The World Bank is likely to approve a $58 million grant early next year for initiation of various projects under different ministries.

An official source told Dawn that the money was expected to be released by mid-January 2004 after the respective ministries held out an assurance that all the necessary requirements for the fund will be fulfilled.

Of the total allocated grant, around $22 million will be spent on various projects under the establishment division, $1 million will go to the Federal Public Service Commission, $5 million to the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and $2 million to the ministry of commerce, according to the source.

It would also include funding of $2 million for oil and gas regulatory authority; $4 million for the ministry of finance; $2 million for National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) and $3 million for PTA.

Of an unallocated amount of $15 million, the official said $5 million will be spent on projects under the planning division; $2 million in statistics division; $1 million in economic affairs division; $4 million to be allocated to provinces and the remaining $2 million will be spent on other projects.

The ministry of finance, the official said, would make the revolving fund functional and inform all participating agencies of this by December 15, 2003; appoint financial management coordinator (FMC) by Dec 15, 2003.

Training will be provided to the accounting staff and coordinators by January 15, 2004; a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system will be put in place for tracking progress of the agreed projects and a national steering coordination committee (NSCC) will be set up by Jan 15, 2004.

With this funding, the Nepra, OGRA, Central Board of Revenue and PTA mostly establish M & E systems in their respective organizations for tracking progress of the agreed performance indicators by December 30, 2003.