FM Khatiwada calls for good coordination among govt agencies to execute development projects

Kathmandu / Dec 19: Finance Minister Yubaraj Khatiwada has said that the development works have been disrupted in various parts of the country due to lack of good coordination among the federal, provincial and local government agencies.

Speaking at the Parliamentary Finance Committee on Thursday, the minister said that the cost of the development projects has also gone up owing to the dilly-dallying in the construction of the projects.

“There seems to be involvement of seven to eight government bodies to executing a single road construction project, and lack of good coordination among them leads to the inordinate delay in completing the project. Who should be blamed for this?” he questioned. He stressed the need for proper coordination among various government agencies to execute the projects.

He said that almost every local government is involved in road construction in one way or the other.

Minister Khatiwada also said that there is lack of construction materials like sand and pebbles for expediting mega development projects across the country.

“We also need to extract construction materials from the mountains because the rivers alone cannot fulfill the required amount of construction materials like sand and pebbles for development projects like highways and railways. At the same time, we need to pay attention to ecological issues while expediting development activities,” he said.

Minister Khatiwada also said that development works have been affected due to lack of proper implementation of the Public Procurement Act.

“The provincial and local governments have failed to utilize the allocated budget. It leads to freezing the budget,” he said.