HEC, MoF: WB likely to discuss cut in release of funds

ASMA RAZAQ

ISLAMABAD: The World Bank is likely to hold a meeting with the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and the Ministry of Finance in December to discuss issues related to reduction in release of funds by the Ministry of Finance to the Commission.

The World Bank released 46 million dollars to Finance Ministry under the project – 44 million dollars less than what was approved due to the failure of finance to disburse the agreed amount to HEC.

Reliable sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that under the Tertiary Education Support Project (TESP) between HEC and the World Bank, the Bank committed to providing 300 million dollars as long as the HEC meets 10 disbursement link indicators (DLIs). These DLIs include: (i) Allocation and timely release of recurrent and development funds to HEC under the agreement; (ii) 445 scholars to be awarded under the indigenous postgraduate scholarship programme in the first year of the programme; (iii) 849 teachers to be recruited on Tenure Track System (iv) All affiliated colleges need to meet the minimum quality standard set by the HEC; (v) Provision of enhanced quality education at Masters level for external students; (vi) Enhancing research, innovation and commercialisation performance; (vii) Improving equitable access through the establishment of an effective student financial aid system; (viii) Introducing a scorecard-based system for performance assessment of quality enforcement cells in public technical education institutes; (ix) Number of higher education institutes (HEI) assessed (management); and (x) Improved strategic management planning and accountability in public HEIs.

According to the first DLI of TESP, allocation and timely release of recurrent and development funds to HEC is compulsory but as the Finance

Ministry is not disbursing the funds under the agreement to the Commission, so the WB has also decreased the amount of total disbursement to the Ministry of Finance.

“Due to the slow pace of disbursement of funds by Finance Ministry to HEC, the Commission has so far fulfilled the following DLIs: the advertisement of awards to be provided to 445 under the indigenous postgraduate scholarship programme in the first year of the programme has been published ;all affiliated colleges are made obligatory to meet the minimum quality standard set by the HEC; Provision of enhanced quality education at Masters level for external students has been imposed and overall research, innovation and commercialization performance has been enhanced.

HEC is likely to face a severe financial crunch during the current fiscal year as the government allocated Rs 10.5 billion less for HEC in the budget 2012-13 than the amount agreed with the World Bank.

Sources said the MoF has released about 30 percent (9.7 billion dollars) of the total recurring budget (32.6 billion dollars) so far. “20 percent of the recurring budget was released in the first quarter of the current fiscal year while the rest of 10 percent in second quarter. While only 20 percent (3.16 billion dollars) of the development budget (15.5 billion dollars) allocated in the federal budget 2012-13 has been released by MoF,” sources added.