August 30: The process of drafting laws related to monitoring and evaluation of national pride projects has started to gain momentum after a year and a half. The then KP Sharma Oli-led government had tabled a bill in the National Assembly in 2019 to make the monitoring and evaluation of National Pride Projects effective amidst the poor performance of development projects. 

However, the bill was not discussed for a long time and the law-making process was affected. A year and a half later, the Legislative Management Committee under the National Assembly discussed the bill on Sunday, August 30. The bill was presented to form a law to evaluate and monitor development projects prepared by all three levels of government. During the discussion, the members of the committee urged the government to enact a law and implement it as soon as possible.

Speaking at the discussion, Parashuram Meghi Gurung, chairman of the committee and member Jitendra Narayan Dev said the progress of the projects was stagnant due to the delay in monitoring and evaluation. So, provisions need to be made to monitor these projects every six months.

Dev disagreed on the proposal which has proposed to monitor the projects once in a year. Dev, who is also a lawmaker from the ruling Nepali Congress, said that considering the current performance of the projects and the needs of the country, those projects need to be evaluated at  least every six months. Evaluating these projects once in a year would not help to get rid of the poor performance of the development projects, he argued. Evaluation would have no importance if it is not carried out even in six months. 

Committee Chairman Parashuram Meghi Gurung said, "Provisions should be introduced to take legal action against the organizations that are preventing smooth performance of projects. Organizations should be penalized even for a minor fault. The committee will discuss the nature of penalties and fines to be taken."

Dhanraj Gyawali, secretary at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, suggested  monitoring and evaluation of the projects could be done once a year or as required. He also clarified that the bill has been brought to enact the law to monitor the performance of the projects.  The bill will be further discussed in the next meeting and will focus on the penalties and fines.

A high-level committee will be formed under the leadership of the prime minister to resolve problems. All the ministers, chief ministers of all provinces, vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission, its members, chief secretary, finance secretary will be its members.

The same committee will review the plans of the government, study, research, evaluate problems seen in the implementation of the plans, discuss the problems, give necessary instructions, and resolve the problems.

Similarly, a ministerial-level development related problem solving committee has been proposed which will be chaired by all the ministers of the government of Nepal and head of public bodies will hold the major responsibility in monitoring and evaluation. The government expects the proposed bill will play a crucial role to make development projects productive.