ISLAMABAD: The World Bank project, “Punjab Resource Improvement and Digital Effectiveness (PRIDE)” of worth $304 million is likely to be restructured on account of modifications in the Local Government Act, which has led to consolidation of numerous local government units.
The objective of the programme was to increase own source revenue, and improve reliability of resource allocation and access to digital services for people and firms in the province of Punjab.
Official documents revealed that the restructuring of the programme is in response to modifications in the Local Government Act, which has led to consolidation of numerous local government units.
Political parties, civil society, academia underscore need for empowering LGs in Sindh
Consequently, the overall count of local government units has decreased from 319 to 229. However, this reduction has not resulted in any change regarding the jurisdiction of these entities or the volume of transactions processed through the Local Government IFMIS system.
PRIDE program for results (PforR) was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on October 22, 2020, and became effective on December 17, 2020. The programme has an overall allocation of $304 million and aims at increasing own source revenue, and improving reliability of resource allocation and access to digital services for people and firms in the province of Punjab, by focusing on the three key result areas; (i) result area 1: Strengthened budget formulation and fiscal risk management, (ii) result Area 2: Increased use of digital technology for delivery of selected public services; and (iii) result Area 3: Improved collection of own source revenue (OSR).
The overall progress towards achievement of the Program Development Objective (PDO) and Implementation Progress (IP) are rated Satisfactory. Programme implementation remains on track and disbursements, currently at 79 per cent, continue to improve as Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) and Disbursement Linked Results (DLRs) are achieved.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.