31 July 2004	Saturday	13 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, July 30: Sindh Planning and Development Minister Syed Shoaib Ahmed Bukhari presided over a meeting to review foreign-funded projects of provincial education department on Friday.

Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Ghulam Sarwar Khero briefed the meeting that presently four education projects; Technical Education Project, Middle School Project, Girls Primary Education Project-II, and the Decentralized Elementary Education Project, were being implemented in Sindh with the Asian Development Bank' assistance.

Out of the total projects' cost of Rs8 billion, Rs6.4 billion had been provided by the ADB, Mr Khero said, adding that the projects of middle school, technical education, and girls primary education were in final stages of completion, whereas Deep was at an initial stage.

The minister directed the Education department to hold the Departmental Accounts Committee meeting on a regular basis to settle audit matters without any delay.

He also urged immediate functioning of various facilities created under the projects through completing recruitment process and submitting SNEs vis-a-vis completion reports to the Finance and Cooperation and Planning and Development departments, respectively.

He emphasized that the problems hampering the implementation of Deep should be listed and taken up with donors, in consultation with P & D department. The minister also discussed the status of the Tawana Pakistan Programme and Information Technology Project being implemented through donors and the federal government assistance. -PPI