PAC instructs to mobilize foreign aid through on-treasury system
KATHMANDU:- Today’s meeting of the Public Account Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR) has directed the authorities concerned to arrange mobilization of foreign aid through national on-treasury and bring development cooperation within audit ambit.
The PAC meeting held at the Singha Durbar on the topic ‘audit of foreign aid received to Nepal’ issued a nine-point directive related to development assistance. Committee President Bharat Bahadur Khadka informed that the meeting decided to instruct the government to receive and mobilize development cooperation directly aligning with national priorities and programmes.
The meeting instructed that donors should provide the government with full details of foreign aid that is operated through off-treasury system, and that clear policies and procedures should be prepared and implemented to integrate such aid into the national system.
The meeting also directed to make arrangements to timely recover amounts spent from foreign aid to minimize the additional burden on Nepal’s resources caused by unrecovered funds.
The meeting instructed that an integrated record of all foreign aid commitments, actual receipts, expenditures, utilization, and reimbursement should be maintained and compulsorily updated in the relevant information system.
All foreign aid should be mandatorily registered in the ‘Development Finance Information Management System’ with project approvals given only through this system.
Likewise, it was decided to make the procurement process, auditing and national fund management system transparent and effective and of international standard to enhance trust in the government system.
The meeting also decided to enhance project management, monitoring and implementation capacity so that the projects run with foreign assistance would be completed within the stipulated time and cost, Khadka added.
Also the PAC has directed the government to adopt a policy to carry out benefit and cost analysis while receiving foreign technical assistance and taking such service only when there is a scope of transfer of new technology, skills and knowledge.
The meeting also urged the Finance Ministry to prepare a clear action plan in coordination with the concerned ministries, the Office of Auditor General, and the provinces and local levels to implement the nine-point directive.
The committee directed the government to ensure policy and institutional reforms in a way that foreign aid would be mobilized aligning national priorities, budget system, public fund, transparency, and auditing.
