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| Sunday, 4 December 2005 |
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Make donors and NGOs accountable for what they are doing - PM by Gamini Warushamana Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said that donors and NGOs must be accountable to parliament and the people for what they are doing with donor funds. Delivering the keynote address at the presentation of a report the Premier lashed out at authorities and agencies engaged in post tsunami rehabilitation activities for their weaknesses in many areas. "We want to improve communication and transparency. People often do not know what is being decided in Colombo and this attitude must change. Meetings must be conducted in a language that people can understand, he said. The Post-tsunami recovery: Issues and challenges in the Sri Lanka report is a collaborative work of the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), Tokyo and the Asian Economics Centre, University of Melbourne. The report, released last Thursday said that poor coordination among domestic and external agencies have emerged as serious problems together with the sensitive issues of balancing political considerations and humanitarian assistance to the needy. Some international NGOs are reluctant to cooperate with government institutions, and competitive behaviour towards other agencies have hampered coordination and implementation. The modalities of aid spending, including procedures and mechanisms should be reviewed to improve quick and effective responses, the report says. The report recommends to the government to take in to account the problems with aid utilisation and accountability highlighted by the Auditor General's Department. It also commends the strengths and positive contributions of government institutions despite all these weaknesses and inefficiencies. Attempts to bypass government institutions by relying primarily on NGOs is co-counter productive, complicating coordination of reconstruction efforts. A balanced approach must be adopted to improve coordination among donors, government and community groups, the report said. Housing is the main concern of households but progress has been slow. Reconstruction was hampered by the 'no-build' costal buffer zone, cost increase and cuts to relief payment. Construction costs increased rapidly and the increase is 40-60% in some instances. This will cause a major cost increase in the private housing sector and in public infrastructure and major funding gap, the report said. The Government has a limited option in funding the shortfall and this would result in poorer households and public infrastructure. The report also raises issues and gives policy recommendations in areas such as livelihood related cash payments to households, assistance for rebuilding houses, titles to new houses, buffer zone rules, early warning and disaster management systems, coordination of donor assisted activities and macroeconomic policy issues. The Rs. 5,000 monthly grant should be paid to all affected households for six months earmarked for livelihood assistance. But scaling back of it by four months and reducing its scope by tightening eligibility rules made the payment inequitable and counter productive, the report said. It proposes an upward revision of the cash grant for house-rebuilding and repairs as present allocations are inadequate due to cost escalation. The report also said that the buffer zone limits should be set through a transparent and consultative process. According to the report the estimated cost of the damaged infrastructure and capital assets is US$ 1 billion or 4.5% of the GDP. The medium term financial needs were estimated to be around 1.5-1.6 billion and the devastation would reduce the 2005 GDP by 0.5-1.0%. External assistance promised is US$2.2 billion over the next two-three years and more than adequate to cover reconstruction costs in full. However, problems have emerged with regard to relief payments, providing credit facilities, distribution of funds, coordination of reconstruction work and mismanagement of funds, the report said. |
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