Sri Lanka’s Decentralized Development programmes have been expedited on the directions of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasighe on the eve of up coming presidential elections.
With the objective of enhancement of socio-economic life of the community, a policy decision has been taken to allocate Rs. 10.00 million annually for a Member of Parliament (MP) under the Decentralized Capital Budget Programme (DCB).
Accordingly, in the year 2018, Rs. 2,250 million have been allocated for the DCB programme and 17,514 projects worth of Rs. 2,186.78 million were approved to implement under the supervision of District Secretaries.
Further to the 2018 programme Rs. 249.24 million of allocation was released to relevant Districts to settle the outstanding bills of projects implemented in 2017.
Accordingly, 16,913 projects were fully completed and 119 projects partly completed out of 17,514 approved projects.
The physical progress is 97.24%. At the end of the year, Rs. 2,331.63 million of expenditure reported including the outstanding bills in 2018 out of total released allocation to District Secretaries. The financial progress is 95.64%.
However Work on Sri Lanka’s Strategic Cities Development Project covering the cities of Kandy, Galle and Jaffna marred with financial irregularities and deficiencies moves at snail’s pace even after more than three years had elapsed since its launch.
This project has been implemented with the aim of improving selected urban services and public open spaces in the three key cities at an estimated cost of US$192.8 million (Rs.25.16 billion).
As of June 2019, total disbursement is US$55.55 million, corresponding to 30% of the loan.
The Project Development Objective (PDO) remains valid, but the project is facing substantial implementation delays.
To date, some completed sub-projects including sewage facilities, drains, bridges and public open spaces have provided improved urban services and spaces to the citizens.
The International Development Agency (IDA) of the World Bank had agreed to provide $167 million for the implementation of the project with additional funding of $55 million for Jaffna city development, Finance Ministry sources revealed.
City development activities of this project were scheduled to be completed by 2021.
(LI)