Daily Mirror: 12/12/2005" By Poornima Weerasekara
Calls for urgent disbursement of loans for approved development projects, says intl bureaucracy is probably worse than local set up
Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara on Friday urged the donor community to expedite the disbursement of funds pledged to Sri Lanka.
“$300 million projects are sitting in the pipeline. Donors need to speed up the rate at which they disburse funds,” he told financial sector professionals at the post budget conference organised by Earnest and Young (E&Y).
“International bureaucracy is probably worse than the local setup. We can’t waste 3-4 years sitting on projects,” he added.
Highlighting several languishing projects such as the southern expressway and the US$40 million assigned for plantation sector development that has been idling for 7 years in a DFCC bank account, Dr. Jayasundara noted that the inefficient procedures and complacency on the part of the donor community has been a bottleneck to the effective utilisation of the aid pledged.
Adding that donors sometimes “do not do things their way nor do they let us do things our way,” Dr. Jayasundara shed light on the tsunami housing effort, where 55,000 houses have been built using the owner driven model whereas only 3,000 houses have been built so far by donor driven initiatives.
He also stressed that during his tenure as the Treasury Secretary he has signed for aid with a cumulative figure of about US$ 6 billion. “We can definitely create a new Sri Lanka with this money if it is disbursed appropriately,” he added.
Calls for urgent disbursement of loans for approved development projects, says intl bureaucracy is probably worse than local set up
Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundara on Friday urged the donor community to expedite the disbursement of funds pledged to Sri Lanka.
“$300 million projects are sitting in the pipeline. Donors need to speed up the rate at which they disburse funds,” he told financial sector professionals at the post budget conference organised by Earnest and Young (E&Y).
“International bureaucracy is probably worse than the local setup. We can’t waste 3-4 years sitting on projects,” he added.
Highlighting several languishing projects such as the southern expressway and the US$40 million assigned for plantation sector development that has been idling for 7 years in a DFCC bank account, Dr. Jayasundara noted that the inefficient procedures and complacency on the part of the donor community has been a bottleneck to the effective utilisation of the aid pledged.
Adding that donors sometimes “do not do things their way nor do they let us do things our way,” Dr. Jayasundara shed light on the tsunami housing effort, where 55,000 houses have been built using the owner driven model whereas only 3,000 houses have been built so far by donor driven initiatives.
He also stressed that during his tenure as the Treasury Secretary he has signed for aid with a cumulative figure of about US$ 6 billion. “We can definitely create a new Sri Lanka with this money if it is disbursed appropriately,” he added.
