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Army to complete foreign funded projects

AMER SIAL

ISLAMABAD: The government is considering handing over of the foreign funded projects in the irrigation and water management sectors to the subsidiary organisations of army, it is learnt.

Army Engineering Corps and Frontier Works Organisation, sources said, are likely to be handed over these projects for timely and effective execution. The projects include Rs 31.4 billion national drainage programme, Rs 8 billion flood protection sector project (Phase-II), Rs 12.8 billion on farm water management (Phase-IV).

According to sources, the government realises the importance of agriculture in the revival of economy, and so far despite incurring massive expenditure on these projects over the years, the agriculture production has remained stagnant.

The army's effective de-silting campaign of the canals also strengthened the impression in the power circles that the departments linked with the working and maintenance of irrigation and water resources had not worked satisfactorily over the years. This in-turn has resulted in a proposal that army should be given the task for their satisfactory execution.

They said that recently director general of Army Engineering Corps in a briefing to high-ups of the government has attributed poor execution and mismanagement as the two major obstacles in passing the benefits of these programmes to the development of agriculture and masses.

Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf after briefing, had directed all the provincial governors to take stern action all those involved in corrupt practices while handling the foreign funded irrigation and water management programmes.

The country had for the past several years received billions of dollars in aid for the uplift of agriculture but despite incurring huge amounts from it instead of gaining the desired result of revival of economy was further burdened with the liability to return back the loans.

The pace and results of especially FPSP-I and OFWM-I, II, III were miserable and further gross irregularities have been pointed out by the special audit reports of the Auditor General of Pakistan, sources said.