September 24, 2008	Wednesday	Ramazan 23, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has criticised Pakistani authorities for suspending an inquiry into the alleged misappropriation of Rs4 billion in the flood protection programme without fixing any responsibility.

The issue has triggered a serious debate within the ADB management and its auditors because the bank has failed keep oversight over a project in which it has contributed about $100 million.

The bank’s operations evaluation department (OED) has also criticised poor performance of some of the Pakistani agencies in achieving objectives and called for completion of the probe.

The Rs8 billion second flood protection project, launched in early 2000, had to be cut down to Rs4 billion following the World Bank decision to divert $100 million from the project because of inefficient handling. Later, the ADB had also reduced its funding for inordinate delays in execution of the project.

Still, the overall project implementation has been rated as “successful” on a scale of highly satisfactory, satisfactory, successful and unsatisfactory.

Out of 28 yardsticks, 10 were highly satisfactory, 16 satisfactory and two partially fulfilled.

“OED regards it as unfortunate that the two partially fulfilled covenants happened to be very important ones — one on training of the officials for improving institutional capacity and the other pertaining to the beneficiaries in subprojects which was important for subprojects’ sustainable operation and maintenance,” an OED report said.

The performance completion report (PCR) concluded that as beneficiaries’ participation in some subprojects was not ensured, the sustainability of operation and maintenance of these subprojects might be affected.

The OED also noted that compliance with most of the loan covenants was delayed.

The PCR rated the performance of the Federal Flood Commission as “partly satisfactory”, the Pakistan Meteorological Department as “unsatisfactory”, Wapda’s water wing as “highly satisfactory