October 16, 2006	Monday	Ramazan 22, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Oct 15: Work on development schemes given to international organisations could not commence in many earthquake-hit areas even though they were issued no-objection certificates by the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority several months ago, official sources said.

Under Erra’s procedures, non-government organisations, international agencies and UN system organisations have to obtain no-objection certificates before starting work on development schemes in the earthquake-affected zone.

Erra chairman Altaf Saleem told Dawn that the authority had outsourced a large number of public sector schemes to local and foreign organisations for construction of buildings for schools, colleges, health facilities and water supply schemes in the earthquake-affected parts.

An NOC is a must even for those organisations who arrange funds on their own.

Information collected from Erra’s field staff in the affected parts reveals that in several cases organisations who have taken the responsibility to execute development works with their own funds could not start work even several months after they got NOCs from Erra.

Unicef was issued an NOC on May 26 for undertaking 245 water supply schemes in the Mansehra district.

“The agency could not begin work on the schemes even by the end of September because it could not sublet the work to local organisations suitable for the job,” a Mansehra-based official of Erra said. According to him, Unicef initially wanted to execute the schemes through its local partners – NGOs, but later, it changed the decision after it could not find local partner NGOs suitable for the job.

UN representative and humanitarian coordinator Jan J. Vandemoortele, when asked about the delay on part of Unicef, said the UN System was trying to use as much as possible local organisations and capacity to help it in the operation phase.

“We take care of resource mobilisation, planning and technical advice but when it comes to implementing the schemes we seldom use international expertise because it proves to be too much expensive which we cannot afford,” he said.

An official of the Erra’s district reconstruction unit (DRU) in Manshera said that other than the 245 water supply schemes, the UN agency had completed more than 10 development schemes. While Erra and UN officials describe the delay as ‘natural’ in view of the scale of devastation and a large number of buildings that have to be rebuilt simultaneously, officials of the Mansehra district government, who wished not to be named, said cumbersome procedure laid by Erra and frustrating bureaucratic way of working on part of international organisations were delaying commencing work on development schemes.

“By now we should have seen a lot of activities on ground in the earthquake-affected parts but that has not happened even one year after the earthquake because of cumbersome procedures adopted by Erra,” said a consultant engaged by a foreign aid agency for its development activities in the earthquake-affected region of the NWFP.

According to figures compiled by the Mansehra DRU, local and foreign organisations have reconstructed five of 246 buildings of schools in the district.

The Erra chairman conceded that the speed at which international organisations and local NGOs were implementing development schemes was far slow than satisfactory.