9 August 2012:The government has dissolved a semi-autonomous watchdog of governance and accountability –– raising questions about its commitment towards transparency in governance.The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development, which has an annual budget of about Rs 45 billion, 33 per cent of which comes from donors, recently dissolved the Local Governance and Accountability Facility citing lack of resources. This comes as the government tries to persuade donor agencies to extend the Local Governance Community Development Programme, aiming at ensuring good governance at the local bodies, for four more years.

Hikmat Bista an expert on governance and development said that “The government does not want to promote accountability because it will create difficulty in misusing development funds.
 

The facility, which used to raise questions about transparency, had representatives nominated by donors agencies, civil society, the government and the local body association. It was receiving services from around 18 specialists, appointed and paid by the donor agencies to keep tabs on the misuse of development funds, sources said. The government has now bid farewell to all of them. . 

But experts requesting anonymity said, “It is a conspiracy of government officials to secure a cut of around 10-60 per cent on programme budget and payment.”

Around 14 donor agencies, including the Asian Development Bank, UK Aid DFID, UNDP and the World Bank have pledged to provide about $200 million for the first phase of LGCDP (July 16, 2008-July 15, 2012). The government contributed about $500 million to the programme.The donors are yet to release $13.42 million they committed for the programme, said the ministry. 

They have given the government time to prepare programmes and policies from July 16, 2011 to July 15, 2013, terming it a low cost extension of the LGCDP for the next phase of LGCDP (July 16, 2013-July 15, 2017).

Meanwhile, the government is learnt to be proposing a budget twice the size of the first phase, for the next phase of LGCDP. It has been reported that government officials are planning to misuse development funds by allowing local bodies to monitor their own performances in the next phase.