ISLAMABAD, April 8: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Salman Shah has asked the planning division to accelerate pace of work on projects and ensure their timely completion.

He issued the directive at the first meeting of the Prime Minister’s Committee on Project Monitoring at the ministry of finance here on Friday.

The additional secretary (projects) of the planning division, Mohammad Ihtesham Khan, in a presentation pointed out that in the first phase the focus would be on projects costing Rs500 million or more.

He said that the planning division would develop a computerized monitoring and evaluation system and obtain feed back from project managers to report the progress to the committee on monthly basis.

The committee was informed that at present 196 projects fell within the above category and out of them 84 projects could be considered as slow moving for various reasons.

Dr Shah asked the planning division to devise a simple proforma containing vital information about a project, its cost, allocation of funds, target completion date, current status and reasons for slow moving, to review projects.

Some of the projects of paramount national importance could be completed ahead of time by reallocating funds from the projects of less importance, he said.

The effort should be that each penny was spent wisely and the progress should be visible on ground, he added.

Dr Shah further asked the planning division to prepare details of the projects as per proforma and the committee to meet on the fifth working day of each month.

The report of selected problem projects should be sent to the prime minister office by 10th of each month, he added.—APP