Donors concerned over low expenditure

Nepal´s development partners, including the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), have identified shortfall in capital expenditure and frequent transfer of human resources including government officials and project staffs as the major hurdles for the country´s development.
"Untimely transfer of senior officials from the implementing ministries and project chiefs has affected the progress in the donor-funded projects," Tahseen Sayed, the WB´s country manager for Nepal, said on Thursday.
"It is unfortunate that cases of low capital expenditure in projects are common every fiscal year," Sayed said at a meeting organized to formally unveil the Nepal Portfolio Performance Review (NPPR) 2012.
Kenichi Yokoyama, the country director of the ADB for Nepal, also blamed a sharp fall in capital expenditure for the slowing economic progress of the country.
The government´s data shows that capital expenditure in the first four months of Fiscal Year 2012/13 was limited to 15 percent of total allocation of Rs 63 billion.
The meeting focused on nine different areas such as agriculture, energy, local governance, mutual-accountability, procurement process and management of donor funded projects.