News
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
95% of DFID grant to be spent only on consultancy
* Pak govt, Statistics Division will not get budget
* Monthly salaries for foreign consultants to be as high as Rs 2.09mBy Ijaz Kakakhel
ISLAMABAD: More than 95% of the “Strengthening National Statistics (SNS) in Pakistan” project, which is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), will spent on consultancy only, official document available with Daily Times revealed on Tuesday.
The total cost of the project is Rs 467.030 million, which the DFID will provide as a grant to improve the capacity of the Statistics Division in collection, processing, relevance and dissemination of statistical data in Pakistan’s Ministry of Finance, which will help support the ministry’s evidence-based decision-making.
Reception: According to the working paper of the project, the proposal provides that the entire funding would be provided by DFID as technical assistance and the project would be implemented through Adam Smith International (ASI) UK.
The funds will be channelled and incurred through ASI without being transferred to the government of Pakistan or its Statistics Division.
The total consultancy spending of project is Rs 446 million, consisting of international (long term) Rs 193 million, national (long terms) Rs 18 million and short term (national and international) Rs 235 million.
Other expenditures of the project are equipment worth Rs 1.030 million (0.2%) and operational costs Rs 20 million (4.3%).
In the short term consultancy, the numbers of international consultant had been put at 34 while in the national short term, the number is 33, meaning the major portion of the grant will return in form of payments to foreign consultants.
According to the working paper, the number of beneficiaries has not been given and the project will not generate any revenue.
The project proposal is silent regarding memorandum of understanding (MoU) areas, where the statistics would be strengthened and the role of the Statistics Division in the project.
Salaries: The working paper further reveals that the provision of Rs 193 million has been made in the project documents to hire international consultants (long term) for 92 man-months (i.e. at an average of Rs 2.09 million per consultant per month).
An amount of Rs 18 million has been allocated for hiring of national consultants (long term) for 76 man-months (i.e. at an average of Rs 0.237 million per consultant per month. Similarly, an amount of Rs 235 million has been allocated for hiring international/national consultants (short term) for 67 man-month, (i.e. at an average of Rs 3.501 million per consultant per month).
He consultants will be hired in areas of human resource, communication, ICT, financial management, change management, data standard and trainers.
The unit cost of these consultants appears on the high side; sponsors may rationalise the unit cost of all categories of consultants.
Moreover, the sponsors may provide a detailed term of reference along with qualification/experience/field of each consultant to justify the demand, the paper reveals.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk