March 10: The government not been able to receive financial support pledged by various donor agencies due to its failure to complete the development works and other related processes to claim the amount. According to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office, the government is yet to receive almost Rs 25 billion pledged by the donors due to the incompetence of its mechanism.

As of mid-February in the current fiscal year, the government is yet to receive refunds worth Rs 11.56 billion in grants and Rs 12.36 billion in loans from the donor agencies. The date of the Financial Comptroller General’s Office show that the government is yet to claim refunds of Rs 23.93 billion in total in the current fiscal year.

The financial work procedure has a provision for the government to seek refund from the donors and keep a record of the due amount. The government itself has to bear the cost of development projects built with donors’ assistance and later claim the refund from the donors. The amount refunded by the donors is deposited in the state coffers.

According to the Financial Comptroller General’s Office, the Ministry of Finance is yet to collect the maximum amount from the donors among all government bodies. It is yet to receive refund of Rs 15.91 billion. Likewise, the provincial governments are also yet to get refund of Rs 6.17 billion.

The financial work procedure has a provision to reclaim the amount from the donors by filling up a form not later than 45 days. Those who do not seek the refund is subject to punishment, according to the work procedure.

Looking at the figures of the last five years, there seems to have been an improvement in collection of dues from the donors. In fiscal year 2073/74, the government was yet to collect Rs 42.95 billion from the donors but this year such amount is Rs 23.93 billion.

The donor agencies release the funds on the basis of the actual expenses incurred in the projects. However, they have been reluctant to release the amount because the government bodies do not show the actual expenses. However, there has been some improvement in such trend, says Deputy Financial Comptroller General Navaraj Dhungana.

However, Assistant Financial Comptroller General Krishna Prasad Acharya says that the situation seems to have improved because the donors provided more than the pledged amount during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to him, the problems in refund has surfaced because the donors were unable to monitor the projects and the works remained stalled resulting in the delay in claiming the refund.

Former secretary Kishor Thapa says that the government does not make the claims with audit report on time after the completion of the projects. Another problem, according to Thapa, is the appointment of new project chiefs frequently for development projects and the delay in completion of works.