ISLAMABAD, Dec 21: The World Bank has expressed its concern over delay in implementation of a number of its projects in Pakistan, including the National Education Assessment System and the HIV/Aids Prevention Project.

The bank expressed its dissatisfaction in a meeting held here at the Finance Division on Tuesday. Presided over by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue, Dr Salman Shah, the meeting was also attended by head of the WB team, Abid Hassan.

The bank pointed out that projects, including the Farm Water Management, National Education Assessment, HIV/AIDS Prevention Project, GEF-Protected Areas Management, AJK Community Infrastructure and Services, were progressing very slowly.

Besides, the bank observed that implementation of the projects, including Public Sector Capacity Building, Highways Rehabilitation and Trade and Transport Facilitation, encountered hurdles and needed special attention.

It was observed that while some projects were being implemented satisfactorily, others had become victims of delays. Most of the problems, the meeting was told, were related to delayed project start-up, which had often led to slower progress subsequently during implementation.

The weak capacity of the staff concerned and their inability to implement the project within the deadline also emerged as one of the factors which often delayed the execution of the projects.

The meeting highlighted some key factors contributing to slow implementation, like the lack of adequate staff and funds for start-up activities, delays in obtaining routine clearances for loan negotiation/signing as well as opening of accounts and postponement of initiating the procurement process.

While issuing instructions to the ministries concerned to expedite the pace of work on various projects, the adviser also decided to hold inter-ministerial meetings shortly to redress the outstanding issues and ensure earlier completion of the projects.

The government and the WB agreed to work closely to remove hurdles and improve the implementation mechanism of the bank-funded projects. It was decided that the monitoring and implementation system would be strengthened and steps would be taken for the capacity building of project directors and simplification of the procedure regarding loan negotiation/signing and removing hurdles which caused delays in the execution of various schemes.

The bank informed that its active portfolio in Pakistan comprised 18 projects with loans/credits amounting to US $1.5 billion.