The World Bank has withdrawn its offer of financial assistance to two parliamentary oversight committees - COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) and PAC (Public Accounts Committee), citing a lack of progress on changes the government agreed to implement in return, reports DailyMirror.
The World Bank had agreed to provide a package of US $494,000 and to assist in developing the capacity of the parliamentary secretariat liaising with them which included two foreign traning programmes for committee members. The aim was to make positive changes in the laws and regulations that govern public finances.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror in confidence, a member of COPE, said that the World Bank had withdrawn because 'certain government members' had not agreed to ensure transparency in the use and disimbursement of public finances.
The official said,
“At the time the WB [World Bank] withdrew, we had spent only ten per cent of the assistance package. We lost the rest. The project that started in 2008 is to have been completed last year,”
“The World Bank has proposed to amend the Finance Act for effective monitoring of public finances by Parliament. But unfortunately it did not happen.”
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