Elmo
RETIRED MOD
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
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Monday, January 18, 2010
Just when you thought we had heard the last of the Kerry-Lugar Bill here it is again; coming over the horizon grumbling and creaking and generally making a nuisance of itself. The problem this time is implementation, delays thereof. The bill was signed on September 24 last year, since when both the US and ourselves have been trying to iron out the modalities of how to disburse and monitor some very large sums of money. It seems that the two sides have not got much past the start line according to the usual nameless source in the finance ministry Basic issues like procedures for finalisation and execution of projects are still under discussion said Mr Nameless. He offered the further penetrating insight that the delays were both politically damaging for the government and were preventing the launch of a range of social-sector projects. The US ambassador has acknowledged the difficulties saying that there were misunderstandings on both sides about how the money was to be released. Meeting reporters she said that Pakistan would get $800 million by March whilst Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that the US authorities had said that Pakistan expected to receive only $500 million perhaps by June. Confusion reigns.
It would appear that the principal hurdle in the way of getting the money out of Uncle Sams pocket and into ours was a lack of coordination on the US side between officials and agencies of the American administration. Three big players have fingers in the pie Robin Raphael, David Lipton and Richard Holbrooke, and they all have different approaches to the allocation of funds. Holbrooke favours the execution of projects through the NGO sector. Raphael wants to grant project funding through the Pakistan government. Lipton, who is the director for international economics on the National Security Council, wants to promote development projects under the Kerry-Lugar programme in areas affected by militancy. Three clearly divergent views. On our side there is as much confusion. There is no single designated agency tasked with coordination of funds from the Kerry-Lugar Bill. The finance ministry has apparently asked the Economic Affairs Division to coordinate matters, but it seems that most of the projects to be considered under KL funding are being authored by the Planning Commission without reference to any other agency or stakeholder. All in all, this is a recipe for a ****-up on a grand scale. What is at stake is about $1.5 billion a year we would have thought that somebody somewhere would have given the matter of disbursal rather more consideration than appears to be the case. Or would that be wishing too much?
Its back!
Just when you thought we had heard the last of the Kerry-Lugar Bill here it is again; coming over the horizon grumbling and creaking and generally making a nuisance of itself. The problem this time is implementation, delays thereof. The bill was signed on September 24 last year, since when both the US and ourselves have been trying to iron out the modalities of how to disburse and monitor some very large sums of money. It seems that the two sides have not got much past the start line according to the usual nameless source in the finance ministry Basic issues like procedures for finalisation and execution of projects are still under discussion said Mr Nameless. He offered the further penetrating insight that the delays were both politically damaging for the government and were preventing the launch of a range of social-sector projects. The US ambassador has acknowledged the difficulties saying that there were misunderstandings on both sides about how the money was to be released. Meeting reporters she said that Pakistan would get $800 million by March whilst Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said that the US authorities had said that Pakistan expected to receive only $500 million perhaps by June. Confusion reigns.
It would appear that the principal hurdle in the way of getting the money out of Uncle Sams pocket and into ours was a lack of coordination on the US side between officials and agencies of the American administration. Three big players have fingers in the pie Robin Raphael, David Lipton and Richard Holbrooke, and they all have different approaches to the allocation of funds. Holbrooke favours the execution of projects through the NGO sector. Raphael wants to grant project funding through the Pakistan government. Lipton, who is the director for international economics on the National Security Council, wants to promote development projects under the Kerry-Lugar programme in areas affected by militancy. Three clearly divergent views. On our side there is as much confusion. There is no single designated agency tasked with coordination of funds from the Kerry-Lugar Bill. The finance ministry has apparently asked the Economic Affairs Division to coordinate matters, but it seems that most of the projects to be considered under KL funding are being authored by the Planning Commission without reference to any other agency or stakeholder. All in all, this is a recipe for a ****-up on a grand scale. What is at stake is about $1.5 billion a year we would have thought that somebody somewhere would have given the matter of disbursal rather more consideration than appears to be the case. Or would that be wishing too much?
Its back!
