06 February 2005	Sunday	26 Zilhaj 1425

PESHAWAR, Feb 5: The NWFP government would qualify for $90 million, the third tranche of the World Bank loan, for implementing structural adjustment credit (SAC)-III to get credit line from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID).

In his meeting with members of a visiting team of the World Bank here on Friday, the Frontier Minister for Finance, Planning and Development Sirajul Haq expressed the hope that the NWFP would get credit line from the DFID to finance a reform project on the SAC pattern. It is a three-year roll over project funded by the World Bank to bring about administrative, civil and financial reforms in the province.

The provincial minister, says an official handout, apprised the WB team that it was quite encouraging for the provincial government that the DFID had also shown interest in financing a reform programme on the SAC pattern.

Though the official handout claimed that the WB team expressed satisfaction over the implementation of the SAC-II, official sources on the condition of anonymity said the representatives of the donor agency had voiced concern on the slow introduction of civil reforms in provincial government departments.

High officials of the provincial government assisted the finance minister in his meeting with the WB team that included senior economist Careen Naqvi and the bank's lead economist for South Asia, Manuela V. Ferro.

"The bank's representatives were particularly unhappy about the slow progress on the civil reforms introduction," said a well-placed official of the provincial government.

Secretaries of most of the departments of the provincial government falling under the purview of the SAC-II briefed the visiting WB team on their respective department's performance in respect of meeting the goals and benchmarks set for them under the SAC-II.

"Only the achievement of the benchmarks set under the SAC-II would enable the provincial government to qualify for the third tranche," said a finance manager of the province.

The provincial government, contained the handout, apprised the members of the WB delegation in detail about the provincial government's requirements and problems faced in the successful implementation of the reforms in the social sectors and briefed them about the hardships confronted by its departments in implementing its [government's] contract-based employment policy.

Representatives of the provincial industries department, education department, health department, finance department, works department and planning and development department made separate presentations at the meeting.