KATHMANDU, April 18: Officials at the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) have said that a majority of donors and international non-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs) involved in post-earthquake reconstruction and rehabilitation have been reluctant to submit their project expenditure details to an online information monitoring system put in place by the authority.
Following reports of alleged irregularities by I/NGOs involved in reconstruction in the quake-affected districts, the NRA had launched the Project Monitoring Information System (PMIS) with the financial aid of the Asian Development Bank in February to monitor and evaluate the status of reconstruction activities by donors and I/NGOs in all the quake-affected districts. As per the NRA guidelines, all donors and I/NGOs were required to upload all the project details along with the expenditure details among other things in the public database and update the details regularly.
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However, even two months after the establishment of the system, a majority of donors and I/NGOs have not submitted any details to the system, said Bhishma Kumar Bhusal, who leads foreign aid coordination section at the NRA.
Of the total 25 donors and over 150 I/NGOs involved in various reconstruction activities, only Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and USAID have uploaded their project details along with expenditure details in the public database, which can be visited at www.pmis.nra.gov.np.
Due to indifference on the part of the donors and I/NGOs to upload the details about their reconstruction projects on the online system, the NRA has not been able to keep track of their activities and monitor if their activities are being carried out in line with the NRA's reconstruction guidelines.
In a meeting with donors on Monday, Bhusal had asked the representatives of the donors and I/NGOs to submit all the details in the meeting and upload regularly. He had urged them to work closely with NRA and ensure that the reconstruction aid is spent transparently, effectively and in line with the priorities of the reconstruction authority.
