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No
single authority to coordinate large aid inflow Some diplomatic missions are keeping tabs on what’s coming in from their respective countries and the United Nations hopes to set up a monitoring team soon as more foreign pledges are converted to hard cash. Sources from the Centre for National Operations (CNO) said it's still premature to monitor the relief pouring into the country via various channels and Transparency International Sri Lanka, has submitted a proposal to the Government on how to ensure accountability in reconstruction aid. The CNO media coordinator said they were doing their best to keep track of the relief coming into the country through different channels. While the aid inflow was being recorded by different groups, be it the armed forces or Government officials, the snag was the absence of a single body to keep an overall check, he said. Although the Treasury was in charge of monitoring the funds, the monies pledged were not released as a lump sum but in small instalments with the donors insisting on expenditure accountability, the CNO media coordinator said. He said it was difficult at this stage to state the exact amounts received as the instalments were streaming in at regular intervals while some were non-monitory aid. The Canadian High Commission spokesman said the development and political branches of the High Commission were handling the monitoring. He said that development and humanitarian assistance professionals were overseeing and supervising the relief work. In addition, the monitoring team is assisted by a few professionals from the programme support unit, he added. The spokesman said the High Commission was channeling funds through NGO's -- with whom it has worked before -- for carrying out specific reconstruction projects undertaken by the NGOs who in turn submitted expense accounts for funds utilised. Australian High Commission development programme specialist Alex Knox, said the High Commission had appointed a monitoring team of professional aid officers to ensure the relief aid is diverted to needy recipients. British High Commission humanitarian advisor Mark Bulpitt said a team of experts were flown in from the UK on December 26 itself to assess the situation. They are now ensuring that all the relief aid received by the HC was being properly utilised, he said. The information officer of the United Nations Information Centre, Mohan Samaranayake said in response to the UN appeal for aid to rebuild the devastated countries the International community -- at meetings held in Jakarta and Geneva – pledged some 700 million US dollars but at this stage most of these contributions remained only pledges. He said the UN had appointed PricewaterCoopers to audit the fund utilisation. The UN Secretary General had emphasised the need for these pledges to be urgently converted into hard cash and Mr. Samaranayake said he felt a considerable percentage of the amounts pledged should be directed to Sri Lanka due to the extent of the damages here. Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) executive director J.C. Weliamuna said the TISL had handed over a set of guidelines to the Government and to the Task Force to Rebuild the Nation (TAFREN), on how best to establish accountability for every cent spent. This was particularly important as the country's present financial accountability system was weak, he added. There is the risk of money pilfering especially after a disaster of this magnitude, he said. Therefore, the need to monitor funds very efficiently, Mr. Weliamuna said. TISL hopes to organise a donors forum to make sure there is a proper utilisation of funds and no overlapping or duplication of aid, he said. The proposal states that development plans together with the necessary reports must be published in print and made available on the net. An officer must be available full time to handle this information and to interact with the public. The public should have access to information on the extent of damage, proposed development, assessment of costs and detailed expenditure reports in respect of each of the projects/reconstruction. It further states that there has to be continuous needs assessment in all parts of the country and that services obtained and all categories of recruitment should be without discrimination, Mr. Weliamuna said. The public must be confident the Government is doing a genuine job and the funds are not being wasted, Mr. Weliamuna added. |
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