LEADERSHIP CHANGE IN NC PARLIAMENTARY PARTY NO LONGER AN ISSUE

RAM CHANDRA PAUDEL SAYS LEADERSHIP ISN’T AN ISSUE ANY LONGER

Kathmandu, 19 July: The leadership of NC parliamentary party is no longer issue, its leader and party Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel said Tuesday.
Paudel told this to reporters .who had gathered at the to residence of President Sushil Koirala who held discussions with Chairman Prachanda.
Koirala has asked Sher Bahadur Deuba not to push the issue in the party.
Three-time prime minister Deuba is seeking the leadership of the parliamentary party from Paudel
Deuba, amidst denial by Koirala, says he has a secret agreement with the NC Chief to change the parliamentary party leadership.
According to Paudel, Koirala told the Maoist chief implementation of a tripartite five-point agreement had been delayed because of intra-differences in UCPN (Maoist).
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FORMER KING CONSECRATES NAGESHWOR TEMPLE
Kathmandu, 19 July: Former King Gyanendra Tuesday consecrated and offered juja at the Nageshwor temple near the Pepsicola factory near the Tribhuvan International Airport.
The temple was constrcted with government investment.
The temple was relocated from the airport runway.
Supporters greeted the former king as consecrated the temple.
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PAKISTAN EMBASSY DEMANDS MORE SECURITY

Kathmandu, 19 July: Pakistan has asked for additional security for its embassy and officials, Kantipur reports.
Even though the embassy had asked for additional security after its official at the embassy in Mararajgunk was shot and injured, it’s learnt additional security was demanded when government didn’t show alertness.
The embassy claims security has become more serious following the fresh Mumbai blast in India.
It’s learnt the embassy has demanded an immediate stop to framed up charges and complaints.
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GOVT.MOVE TO BETTER IMPLEMENT BUDGET
Kathmandu, 19 July: With development spending remaining low in the last few years, the government will adopt third-party evaluation, electronic monitoring and directives for better capital spending while implementing the budget for the current fiscal year, Prithvi Man Shrestha writes in The Kathmandu Post.

The government has given continuity to a number of measures taken by the previous administration including the ceilings of 40 percent of expenditures during May-July and 20 percent in July of the total allocation.

Finance Secretary Krishna Hari Baskota said that the government introduced these measures for effective implementation of development projects so as to achieve the desired results.

In a bid to ensure that the quality of work would not be compromised, the government started imposing such upper limits to discourage the tendency among projects to spend money as fast as possible when the end of the fiscal year approaches.

The budget has also continued the provision of monitoring the progress of projects worth more than Rs 150 million by the high-level committee chaired by the finance minister

The government has given high priority to monitoring and evaluation of first priority and donor-aided projects. The budget announced that an electronic monitoring mechanism would be developed from the next fiscal year to make it automatic and effective.

According to the budget speech, the government will formulate and implement directives to increase the ratio of spending of the capital budget by discouraging unproductive expenses. Capital expenditure in the last fiscal year is expected to touch Rs. 108.08 billion although the target was Rs 129 billion.

The budget has also stated making arrangements to inform stakeholders about the declared programmes being implemented at the local level. “A public audit system will be compulsory in the case of programmes implemented through user committees or cooperatives,” states the budget.

The budget states that the National Planning Commission (NPC) would make the necessary arrangements for third-party evaluation of foreign-aided and other development projects.

“In addition, the ministries concerned and the NPC have given high priority to monitoring and evaluation of projects, and the NPC will make the necessary arrangements for monitoring foreign-aided projects,” said NPC vice-chairman Dinesh Chandra Devkota.

Donors have been repeatedly complaining about non-monitoring of development projects. The government had promised to allocate separate resources for monitoring and evaluating projects at the Nepal Portfolio Performance Review meeting held a few months ago.

The budget has also continued the provision of releasing the budget for projects to be implemented with foreign aid by linking it with the expenditure of the projects, the results achieved from the implementation and timely preparation and submission of financial and audit reports.

“We will suspend releasing the budget of projects not submitting the report on time for reimbursement,” Baskota said. The government had released the budget of a number of projects, in particular those of the Ministry of Education, despite its earlier promise not to do so, according to a Finance Ministry source.

In order to enlarge development activities in the Karnali region and other remote districts, the government has made arrangements for multi-year contracts if necessary in all the districts of Karnali zone and Bajura, Darchula, Bajhang, Dailekh, Mustang, Jajarkot and Rukum districts for projects worth more than Rs. 10 million. It has also moved to implement the electronic procurement system for contracts exceeding Rs 20 million to make sure that bidding is carried out on a competitive basis, promptly, and in a transparent manner.

Meanwhile, in order to get information about the spending of the budget as early as possible, the government is implementing the treasury single account in an additional 22 districts. The government aims to apply this system in all the districts within the next two years.
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NPC TO DRAFT 20 –YEAR DEVELOPMENT PLAN
Kathmandu, 19 July:The National Planning Commission (NPC) plans to prepare a 20-year long-term plan for the country’s socio-economic development although it has been conducting five-year and three-year annual plans, The Kathmandu Post reports.

The NPC moved to prepare the document after the budget for the current fiscal year 2011-12 announced that a 20-year vision would be formulated. “We will start preparations from the beginning of August,” said NPC vice-chairman Dinesh Chandra Devkota. “We will prepare the 20-year vision along with another three- or five-year plan.” With the fluid political situation and high turnover of officials, the NPC has been struggling to even complete the three-year interim plan, forcing the government to depend on its approach paper while making the budget.

Devkota said that the interim plan document had been sent to press after being finalised.
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ADMIN. REFORM MECHANISM IN OFFING
Kathmandu, 19 July: The government has opted for a three-tier Public Administration Restructuring Mechanism to provide direction for necessary administrative reforms and restructuring, The Himalayan Times reports.
Last month, the cabinet had decided to form a high level administrative reform mechanism under the chairmanship of the prime minister.

According to Jagadish Regmi, spokesperson at the Prime minister’s Office (PMO), the mechanism will have an implementing unit at PMO and a technical committee in all the ministries.

The mechanism will be the first permanent body in the administrative reform sector. Previously, the government used to form periodic commissions to carry out certain tasks related to reforms in the administration.

After the term of the Administrative Restructuring Commission expired four months ago, there was no entity to guide the administrative reform programme. The commission has already submitted its last report recommending measures to be implemented in restructuring the administration.

Jyoti Adhikari, undersecretary at PMO, said the mechanism gives continuity to the previous commission on Administrative Restructuring and it envisages working out ways for bureaucratic restructuring after the country enters the provincial system of governance.

The High Level committee under the Chairmanship of the prime minister includes the finance minister and minister of general administration and secretaries, among others.

The implementation unit in the PMO will be headed by a secretary who will look after administrative issues.
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