PESHAWAR, Nov 4: The NWFP government has constituted a committee involving senior officers of the departments concerned to monitor the implementation and review proposals of projects to be funded by the Fund for Sustainable Development (FSD),  according to sources.

The committee comprising representatives of the planning and development, environment and finance departments, the environmental protection agency (EPA) and the civil society was constituted by the provincial sustainable development fund board in its meeting a few days back.

The terms of reference of the committee include, monitoring the implementation of the projects to be funded under the FSD and review project proposals before their approval for funding under the FSD.

The formation of the committee has come in line with the provincial government’s efforts to make the foreign funded FSD  operational after about three years.

The last provincial government had earmarked Rs3 million in its 2000-01 financial year’s development programme for the FSD.

The Swiss Development Corporation had pledged to provide Rs5 million to support the FSD — constituted under the Pakistan Environment Protection Act, 1997, to provide assistance in projects designed for  the protection, conservation, rehabilitation and improvement of the  environment and prevention and control of pollution.

The funds pledged by the provincial government and the SDC could not be used due to procedural bottlenecks and  bureaucratic delays.

Sources said that though renewed effort had been made to operate the fund, it would take more time.

The committee could only start functioning when the funds pledged by the provincial government and the donor were provided to it, for which an account would have to be opened in a commercial bank.

Sources said the EPA would shortly request the provincial finance department to sanction the opening up of an account.