The MoI has completed just 43 percent of the work set for the first trimester of this fiscal year. Likewise, it´s spending on the top priority (P1) projects remained pretty low at 32 percent of its total budget allocated for the period.[break]
However, Yam Kumari Khatiwada, joint secretary at the MoI, tried to defend the dismal performance of the ministry by attributing it to various "structural and policy level constraints".
"There are structural and policy constraints. The ministry´s weak performance is also due to lack of coordination among line agencies and other bottlenecks such as lack of symmetrical approach to the program from all the stakeholders," said Khatiwada, making presentation on the ministry´s performance on Wednesday.
According to her, industrial infrastructure program -- one of the key programs implemented by the ministry -- has been hit hard by the lack of coordination between MoI and Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM).
The government had announced to provide industrial infrastructure program in fiscal year 2008/09. Under the program, the government had promised to construct roads, drinking water facility and lay out electricity lines to cement industries which use local raw materials.
Other programs such as cottage and small industry development, industrial infrastructure development, expansion of transmission line fall under the ministry´s P1 project.
The ministry has performed weakly in second priority (P2) and third priority (P3) projects as well, as per the review report. The report -- that also highlights the problems faced by the ministry while implementing the programs in the first four months -- states that procedural hassles also affected the ministry´s work performance.
Meanwhile, the ministry also failed to properly manage and provide resources to the agencies under it such as Department of Industry (DoI) and Department of Cottage and Small Industries (DoCSI).
Officials from the DoI and DoCSI complained that they have neither financial strength nor human resources to monitor industries that come to register with them. "We don´t have the capacity to monitor those industries, leave alone those whop operate without registering with us,” an official complained at the meeting.
The process of endorsing policies and acts that are crucial for industrial development is in limbo. "The Industrial Policy 2010 has become just another document as we haven´t been able to endorse acts and regulations that synchronize with the policy," Khatiwada said in the meeting.
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