The Ministry of External Affairs (mea) does not want even a whiff of graft to surround any of its development projects abroad. It is consulting the Central Vigilance Commission on appointing “independent external monitors” to give an unbiased opinion about the execution and progress on big contracts. These appointments will be part of a new pre-contract integrity pact, which has to be signed by any bidder for any tender issued by MEA for projects that are worth Rs 50 crore and above.
Deposing before the standing committee on external affairs last month, South Block officials admitted there had been delays in implementing projects. It claimed that this was mainly due to tardiness, lack of funds and other external factors. However, the MEA has been slow in introducing integrity pacts for its major projects, which were recommended as far back as 2011 by the Finance Ministry’s department of expenditure.
But, MEA officials insist that South Block started to straighten out its processes for disbursing and implementing foreign aid projects from last year, with the formation of a separate Development Partnership Administration division. It has since become the largest division inside the ministry, headed by an Additional Secretary and having three joint secretaries.
While India can still oversee the foreign aid projects that it directly sponsors, it has to be more diplomatic regarding projects under Lines of Credit, as the recipient country does the procurement process.
“In the case of Lines of Credit, where the prerogative of award of contract rests with the recipient governments, the Ministry’s approach is to be alert but non-intrusive,” the ministry had told the parliamentary panel.
Official sources said that last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India had asked the ministry to provide information on the Lines of Credit. While there had been a preliminary audit, there no formal report has been presented by CAG.
While noting that “any kind of monitoring is a good first step”, Rani Mullen who heads Indian Development Cooperation Research in Delhi-based think tank, Centre for Policy Research, felt that the other major changes also require to be made for this to be effective..
“But if you are going to monitor, you need to first know what your explicit goals are, who will do project implementation etc in order to be able to investigate possible corruption. India doesn’t
do that with its grants, doesn’t have professional development staff at MEA to deal with their lending and are totally understaffed,” she said.
The Sunday Standard