Move to strengthen IMED under planning ministry
Saturday, 3 July 2010
Initiatives are underway to strengthen the Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation Division (IMED) under the planning ministry in a bid to ensure the quality and performance of the development projects.
"If monitoring of the development projects is strengthened, quality will be ensured and this is the main focus of the strengthening initiatives," said IMED Secretary Md Abdul Malek while talking to UNB.
He said that it is not possible to monitor all the development projects with the current logistic support and manpower of IMED, even if they work non-stop for 24 hours.
Citing an example, he said that an IMED official, who needs to go to Sylhet for monitoring a project, faces various problems including that of transportation.
The IMED Secretary said that a proposal was sent to the Secretaries Committee on Administration and Development under the Cabinet Division for extension of the IMED offices to seven divisional cities and 21 old districts.
"At present, we are not able to monitor even 20 per cent of the projects… there is random sampling in our monitoring process and it becomes hard to maintain continuous monitoring," he said.
Malek mentioned if the IMED offices are extended to division and district level, the overall monitoring will increase and so will the progress in implementation. "The tendency of revised, carry over and overlapping of projects will also come down," he said.
Besides, a proposal has been submitted to the Establishment Ministry for creating 630 new posts in the IMED including 172 first class officers and 458 subordinate staff, said another high official at the IMED.
At present, some 91 first class officials -- 54 from economic cadre, 6 from admin cadre and 31 from non-cadre -- are working at the IMED.
"If the proposal for increasing the manpower is approved, the IMED will also be able to monitor implementation of the block allocations made for the pourasavas and local government offices as well as different schemes under the social safety net programmes," the official said.
As per the IMED proposal, there will be short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes if the Division is strengthened fully.
The expected short-term outcomes are submission of reports at the NEC and ECNEC meetings in time, urgent dissemination of information from the field level through IT, and enhancing the standard of evaluation reports in consultation with the local and foreign consultants.
The medium-term outcomes will be increased efficiency of IMED, strong monitoring of poverty reduction strategy projects and schemes in field level, reducing the delay in project implementation as well as to check misuse of resources, attaining result based management and e-tendering and ensuring much more coordination among the government, NGOs and CBOs (community based organizations).
The expected long-term outcomes include utilizing the decentralized manpower in 'bottom-up-approach' or participatory national planning or local level planning, attaining the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eliminating regional disparity, income inequality, empowerment of women, youths and create employment opportunities and overall development of human resources.
The IMED proposed that while recruiting the additional manpower, preference should be given to economic cadre as the personnel from this cadre do jobs similar to that of the Division.
The IMED is also expected to do so some extended activities if the strengthening process is completed. These include monitoring of activities of private and NGOs selected by the special directives of the government, monitoring different PRS, social safety nets, Food-for-Work and Test Relief (TR) activities under the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
The IMED strengthening proposal also included projects for imparting training, setting up a laboratory in the central office for sample testing and setting up a cell for materializing e-governance.
The IMED high official opined that the planning wing of the Planning Ministry will also have to be strengthened as IMED is dependent on them for getting information.
Earlier, in 1999, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the concerned authorities to prepare a proposal for strengthening the IMED, but that initiative did not succeed.
After assuming power again, Sheikh Hasina again directed to prepare a proposal for strengthening the IMED.
"If monitoring of the development projects is strengthened, quality will be ensured and this is the main focus of the strengthening initiatives," said IMED Secretary Md Abdul Malek while talking to UNB.
He said that it is not possible to monitor all the development projects with the current logistic support and manpower of IMED, even if they work non-stop for 24 hours.
Citing an example, he said that an IMED official, who needs to go to Sylhet for monitoring a project, faces various problems including that of transportation.
The IMED Secretary said that a proposal was sent to the Secretaries Committee on Administration and Development under the Cabinet Division for extension of the IMED offices to seven divisional cities and 21 old districts.
"At present, we are not able to monitor even 20 per cent of the projects… there is random sampling in our monitoring process and it becomes hard to maintain continuous monitoring," he said.
Malek mentioned if the IMED offices are extended to division and district level, the overall monitoring will increase and so will the progress in implementation. "The tendency of revised, carry over and overlapping of projects will also come down," he said.
Besides, a proposal has been submitted to the Establishment Ministry for creating 630 new posts in the IMED including 172 first class officers and 458 subordinate staff, said another high official at the IMED.
At present, some 91 first class officials -- 54 from economic cadre, 6 from admin cadre and 31 from non-cadre -- are working at the IMED.
"If the proposal for increasing the manpower is approved, the IMED will also be able to monitor implementation of the block allocations made for the pourasavas and local government offices as well as different schemes under the social safety net programmes," the official said.
As per the IMED proposal, there will be short-term, medium-term and long-term outcomes if the Division is strengthened fully.
The expected short-term outcomes are submission of reports at the NEC and ECNEC meetings in time, urgent dissemination of information from the field level through IT, and enhancing the standard of evaluation reports in consultation with the local and foreign consultants.
The medium-term outcomes will be increased efficiency of IMED, strong monitoring of poverty reduction strategy projects and schemes in field level, reducing the delay in project implementation as well as to check misuse of resources, attaining result based management and e-tendering and ensuring much more coordination among the government, NGOs and CBOs (community based organizations).
The expected long-term outcomes include utilizing the decentralized manpower in 'bottom-up-approach' or participatory national planning or local level planning, attaining the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eliminating regional disparity, income inequality, empowerment of women, youths and create employment opportunities and overall development of human resources.
The IMED proposed that while recruiting the additional manpower, preference should be given to economic cadre as the personnel from this cadre do jobs similar to that of the Division.
The IMED is also expected to do so some extended activities if the strengthening process is completed. These include monitoring of activities of private and NGOs selected by the special directives of the government, monitoring different PRS, social safety nets, Food-for-Work and Test Relief (TR) activities under the Annual Development Programme (ADP).
The IMED strengthening proposal also included projects for imparting training, setting up a laboratory in the central office for sample testing and setting up a cell for materializing e-governance.
The IMED high official opined that the planning wing of the Planning Ministry will also have to be strengthened as IMED is dependent on them for getting information.
Earlier, in 1999, the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina directed the concerned authorities to prepare a proposal for strengthening the IMED, but that initiative did not succeed.
After assuming power again, Sheikh Hasina again directed to prepare a proposal for strengthening the IMED.