The National Council’s Economic Affairs Committee said except for hydropower and renewable energy projects, the 13th Five Year Plan document lacks clarity and details of major projects that will be undertaken. The committee recommended the government to provide project details and indicative resource outlay for major economic projects. This according to the committee is to ensure transparency, predictability and consistency of the plan, its implementation, and follow-up and monitoring. The committee also submitted four additional recommendations.
National Council members said there are no details on specific plans and programme implementation for other sectors like agriculture and livestock, tourism, and mining and manufacturing among others.
The committee also recommended the government to ensure that utmost priority is accorded to ensure that all vacant positions in the local government are filled by the end of this year to ensure that the benefits of 13th FYP flows to all the people of Bhutan.
The government has allocated Nu 10bn to the local government in the 13th Plan. However, the committee chairperson said it is concerning that the shortage of skilled professionals in agriculture and livestock, engineering, architecture, and accountancy in the local governments will impede service delivery and lead to lower levels of development in the villages.
The third recommendation is the need to revisit the Resource Allocation Framework. The committee observed that the framework in the 13th Five-Year Plan employs different criteria for Dzongkhag, Gewog, and Thromde. The committee recommends that rather than relying solely on the resource allocation formulas and standard deviation metrics, it would be important to adopt the Common Minimum Infrastructure framework.
In their fourth recommendation, the committee recommended ensuring timely completion of hydropower projects.
The fifth recommendation mentioned that the NU 15bn economic stimulus plan has not been integrated into the 13th FYP. The committee said such an approach does not provide transparency in allocation and accountability for resource use and will limit the possibility of monitoring the macroeconomic effects of such large expenditures. Therefore, the committee recommended the government to include the Economic Stimulus Plan in the main fiscal framework of the 13th FYP.
Members recommended the committee to add a few more recommendations pertaining to central schools and financing of STEM education in schools to the existing ones. The house also asked the committee to review some recommendations before adopting them on Monday.
Samten Dolkar
Edited by Kipchu
