5.5 % of Nu 20 billion released

5 September: The government of India has released Nu 1,104.881m or 5 .5 percent so far out of the Nu 20,000m they committed for Bhutan’s 10th plan projects, under the project-tied grant. Another Nu 620m will be released soon.

The figure was revealed yesterday during the first (10th plan) project monitoring committee (PMC) meeting held in Thimphu on the Indian government’s project tied assistance to Bhutan. The government of India is Bhutan’s largest development partner.
The Indian government’s delegation led by director of finance, ministry of external affairs, Arun Kumar Chatterjee, on a three-day visit to Bhutan will review, guide and give assistance to projects, which the Indian government has granted aid to.

For the 9th Plan, the Indian government released Nu 8,156.066m out of Nu 9074.070m committed.

“We monitor projects in terms of time over run and cost over run to resolve all the problems associated with the projects.” Once the fund is released, the PMC studies how the work was executed to prevent it from going wrong. The committee also looked at how the fund is utilised, for instance whether tenders have been floated or what was the cost of the project.

“Sometimes there could be additional needs when a project is implemented. The scope of the project could go up and, based on the additional need, there could be an additional request that has to be looked into again,” said Arun Kumar Chatterjee.

The director said it was too early to review the 10th Plan project, but the way Bhutanese government has handled the 9th Plan projects, there has been virtually 100 percent completion of most projects that the two governments mutually identified. The group will be visiting some of the project sites to monitor progress and check quality as well. Once the project is completed, they need to submit certificates to keep records and maintain audit and accounts for the money released.

The project-tied assistance covers infrastructure development activities such as construction of roads, school building, energy, livestock and marketing, health and education, urban development and transport and construction of judiciary and constitutional offices.

The delegation will visit the national referral hospital, the BBS television centre, the Supreme Court and national livestock-breeding programme at Yusipang, which are being built under the project-tied assistance.

The secretary of Gross National Happiness Commission, Karma Tshiteem, said that the priorities of the 10th Plan, especially poverty reduction, could be achieved with the assistance of the Indian government.

source: kuensel