April 16: The government has been taking loans and grants from various donor agencies and organizations for the development of the country's physical infrastructure. However, the expenditure and utilization of foreign resources or the aid received in this way remains weak.

Four development partners have assisted in nine projects related to development of national highways and rail and metro rail. The '60th Annual Report of the Office of the Auditor General-2079' pointed out that both the expenditure and utilization of the foreign resources for this purpose have been weak. According to the report of the last fiscal year, the utilization of foreign aid in nine projects ranges from 3.5 to 39.63 percent.

In the review year, a total of Rs 38.48 billion was allocated for those projects with the assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Exim Bank-India, IDA and Japan. It is mentioned in the report that a total of Rs 10.69 billion were spent in that year.

There has been no significant improvement in the completion of the projects being built with the help of the donor organizations. According to the report, only 9 percent of the total allocated amount has been spent on the Mugling-Narayangadh road under the regional trade and transport project and only 5.69 percent of the allocated budget has been spent under the title of rail, metro rail and monorail project.

The Office of the Auditor General has suggested to the government to increase the utilization capacity of the foreign resources received for those projects. Even if the government seeks and brings foreign resources for development and construction, if it is not utilized, the interest rate will increase and the work will fail to complete on time.