Nepal Portfolio Performance Review meet in November

The government is planning to organise the Nepal Portfolio Performance Review (NPPR) — a key dialogue mechanism between the government and its donor partners that will review the performance of the donors — annual meeting by the end of November.

"Before the annual meet in November, donors — who have been supporting Nepal in different development work, health, education, and governance — should make more progress and prepare their final performance report," said finance secretary Krishna Hari Baskota, chairing the evaluation meeting here at the ministry today.

Baskota, on the occasion, convinced the donors that the progress of any project will not be slowed down due to the lack of a full-fledged budget. "The government is committed to continuing donor-supported projects despite the lack of a full-fledged budget," he said, adding that the government is working on creating high-level political consensus for a full-fledged budget.

Earlier, the Nepal Portfolio Performance Review was organised in November 2011, which discussed the weaknesses in monitoring the implementation process of the budget.

The coordinators of each sector during the meeting presented the progress report on five key issues — public finance management, human resource management, public procurement, result-oriented management, and mutual responsibility — till August. Similarly, donors on the other hand, urged the coordinators for more effective results.

Foreign aid is key to Nepal's development process and has largely contributed to its progress in meeting most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but the lack of an effective monitoring system and off-budget aid has started raising eyebrows lately due to their lack of transparency and effectiveness.

Around 30 per cent of foreign aid in fiscal year 2010-11 was disbursed from off-budget projects, according to the Finance Ministry that has been working hard to harmonise aid flow for effective and result-oriented output.

According to the central bank, foreign grants on cash basis increased to Rs 46.57 billion in fiscal year 2011-12, whereas a fiscal year ago such grants had increased to Rs 26.21 billion.