PESHAWAR, July 24: Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has sought an explanation from various government departments for the lack of coordination in the ongoing reform process, official sources said.

A letter, sent to the health and education departments by the coordinator of the structural adjustment credit (SAC) reforms and monitoring unit of the finance department on July 17, 2003, says the chief minister has taken exception to the weak coordination and problems in reporting among different departments, directorates and district governments.

The letter quoting the chief minister as saying that despite the establishment of planning cells and health sector reforms and research units in the education and health departments respectively, they lack coordination.

The chief minister, the sources said, had also directed that explanation might be obtained from the officers concerned for their delinquency in the implementation of the reforms process in these departments. He has asked the departments concerned to reply by July 26 positively.

According to the sources, former provincial finance minister Farid Rehman wrote a letter to Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz on May 22, 2002, wherein he had sought financial assistance to carry out the reforms in various departments of the province.

Mr Aziz forwarded the letter to the World Bank’s chief in Washington on May 27, 2002, on the basis of which the WB sanctioned loan to the NWFP under its SAC programme.

The SAC’s assistance was conditional to reforms in several areas of the government-owned departments, but the conditions were not fulfilled, despite the establishment of various units to carry out the reforms.