In a recent move on August 12, 2018, the Government of Nepal informed its parliament about ways to effective utilization of foreign funds for country\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
In a parliamentary Finance Committee meeting, the government officials informed the parliament about their plans to use budgetary control system or create a separate basket fund for effective management of foreign funds.<\/p>\n
While the currency system doesn\u2019t allow foreign funds through NGOs\/INGOs, the officials feel that brining that under budgetary control will ensure more transparency in the process along with increasing productivity of foreign assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many cases, foreign donors impose a number of conditions when they provide money as per their commitment. As a result, the fund received via foreign aid yields poor performance against the target,\u201d says Finance Secretary Rajan Khanal<\/span> said in a statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to the Finance Ministry records, the government could utilize only 50 percent of the committed amount under foreign aid in the last four years.<\/p>\n
Investing a large chunk of foreign grants & loans in already-setup projects and programmes, causing duplicate projects, is being seen as one of the prime reasons behind improper utilization of foreign funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, it\u2019s time to revise the policy on foreign aid disbursement. In addition, the Finance Ministry has also planned to adopt one-window system or set up a single basket fund to address the existing trend of foreign assistance being underutilized,\u201d adds Khanal.<\/p>\n