Project directors to be appointed through interviews: Minister
Project directors (PDs) for various development projects will henceforth be appointed on the basis of direct interviews by the line ministries and divisions to ensure there are greater numbers of skilled officials to run the projects, said planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.
The minister made this announcement after presiding over a meeting with the secretaries of different ministries and divisions to review the progress of the implementation of the Annual Development Programme (ADP), held at the NEC conference room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the city yesterday. State minister for finance and planning, MA Mannan, attended the meeting.
The line ministries and divisions would have to properly select PDs and appoint them on the basis of interviews to ensure better output, he said.
He said the secretaries of the line ministries and divisions would interview the project directors after considering their job specifications and academic backgrounds.
Currently, there are no clear-cut rules for appointing skilled and efficient PDs, which hampers the quality of projects. Kamal said guidelines for this purpose would also be formulated as soon as possible.
Describing project directors as the lifeline of projects, Kamal said if the PDs are not serious and sincere, then the implementation of development projects becomes very difficult.
He said project directors would have to stay at their respective project sites. In the case of a national project, field-level officials could be project directors, working under a central project
director. To reduce the burden on the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED), the minister said the line ministries have also been advised to keep a dedicated official for monitoring each project under those ministries and divisions. He also said the line ministries have been advised to communicate their problems to the Planning Commission.
The meeting also emphasised timely implementation of the ADP, as there would be cost overruns if the development projects were not implemented on time.
The planning minister said the meeting also discussed the way forward with the non-operational projects under the ADP, or projects that are stuck. These would be delisted to lessen the burden on the state exchequer. In this connection, he disclosed that the ministries and divisions concerned would be sent letters on October 1, asking them to dispatch the lists of non-performing projects to the Planning Commission.
