ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakht­unkhwa government failed to capitalise on a donor-assisted project for the development of marble stone, with actions taken by the provincial Department of Mines and Minerals practically halting the programme, an evaluation report of the World Bank said.

The ‘Competitive Industries Project for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’ aimed at improving the competitiveness of the marble and food processing sectors in the province by providing shared infrastructure and relevant skills along the marble sector and food processing value chains.

According to the report – issued by the independent evaluation group of the World Bank – the project management unit (PMU) lacked full-time leadership for half of the project.

The project only partially achieved its outcomes, had major shortcomings and did not fully realise the project development objective, the report concludes. The project cost was estimated at appraisal at $9 million. However actual project at closing was $5.69m.

The International Development Association (IDA), acting as administer of the KP-FATA and Balochistan Multi Donor Trust Fund (MTDF), financed the project with a grant of $9m, whereas only $5.69m of the grant was disbursed.

The project approved in 2013 with the actual closing date of June 2015 but was restructured with a six months delay in closing.

The development objectives of the project were to improve the competitiveness of the marble sector, and to improve the competitiveness of the food processing sector in KP.

The project established and procured the equipment, including excavators and compressors, for the machinery pool, which aimed to support the marble miners with modern technology in marble quarrying and processing.

The agreement between PMU and Pakistan Stone Development Company directed the project management to make the equipment available for rental to marble enterprises.

Although it managed to procure the equipment for the machinery pool, it failed to establish a common training and facility centre that would have built capacity vital to improving marble processing and to creating additional employment in the sector.

At the same time, no economic analysis for the investment was prepared at project closing.

Under the project, eight mines reported waste reduction of 65 per cent following their rental of excavation machines. The target was to have 39 marble mines reduce waste from 65pc to 85pc by adopting better mining technology provided by the infrastructure created by the project.

The report says the project suffered from operational inefficiencies – procurement activities were either delayed or derailed at various points. One instance involved a breach of the terms of the project grant agreement. Another resulted in the cancellation of a vital sub-component of the project.

Contract management was equally problematic, and there were disputes with the contractor who won the first international competitive bid award.

The Pakistan Stone Development Company was slow in completing the civil works for the first component of the project. Construction of the shed for equipment parked at the machinery pool is yet to be completed.

Published in Dawn January 31st, 2017