ISLAMABAD: An inquiry committee, in its fact-finding report, has held NDMA and Ministry of Climate Change capacity issues responsible for the lapse of $2.73 million grant from World Bank.
A project titled ‘Strengthening Urban Disaster Response Capacity’ was initiated in 2011 as a foreign aided project and was financed through the WB’s Policy and Human Resource Development (PHRD).
The grant for this project was $2.73 million, however, the World Bank closed the project on June 3, 2015, despite NDMA’s request for an extension.
An inquiry committee was formed on August 27, 2021, on the directives of the sub-committee of Public Accounts Committee to look into the matter.
The fact-finding committee submitted its report to the sub-committee of PAC on Monday.
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In its fact-finding report, the committee gave a clean chit to the NDMA officials in their individual capacity on the ground that none of them appears to be directly responsible for causing delays in different phases of the project which ultimately led to the loss of the project.
The fact-finding committee observed that proper record-keeping was not maintained by the relevant responsible officials.
It also observed less coordination among the stakeholders about seeking an extension of the project deadline. The extension of the project was not requested to the World Bank through MoCC and Economic Affairs Division (EAD) right after administrative approval of the project by MoCC on April 10, 2014.
Later, a request was made by NDMA directly to the World Bank on April 16, 2015, when the project was approaching its closing deadline of June 30, 2015, it was further maintained.
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Intermittent movement of draft PC-1 between Planning Commission and NDMA through the tier of MoCC, on the observation of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and MoCC also caused a delay as the process took seven months for the submission of the revised draft, said the report.
