World Bank Displeased With Progress in S. Sudan

By Juma John Stephen

JUBA, 24 February  2010 (Gurtong) -In a statement read to reporters last Saturday in Juba, the World Bank Country Director for Sudan and Ethiopia Kenichi Ohachi, outgoing director and co-team leader Joseph Saba and the World Bank Manager in South Sudan Dr Lawrence Clark said “the World Bank has not been satisfied with the performance of the trust fund which in some respects has not met standards achieved by other trust funds the bank administers elsewhere”.

They cited capacity constraints as some of the reasons for the below par performance.

“We want to move faster, while still ensuring proper use of funds. Over the last two years we have placed international procurement specialists in our local office, financed additional experts in the Ministry of Finance to handle funds, simplified requirements for small contract and increased amounts that can be approved locally”, said Saba.

The World Bank Country Director for Sudan and Ethiopia Kenichi Ohachi (left) with the outgoing director and co-team leader Joseph Saba during the meeting in Juba. [© Gurtong]

“We are also working hard  to do better through a high-level team now in South Sudan evaluating recent progress and seeking ways to improve performance”, he added.

According to the update read by Saba, the World Bank by July this year expects more than half of the $526 million committed to the Trust Fund to have been disbursed.

“In administering MDTF funds, the Bank has to balance the need to disburse quickly, with its responsibility to ensure that donor monies benefit the poor and not the powerful and are not lost to corruption and mismanagement”, he said.

The World Bank said the Government of Southern Sudan President specifically requested it to apply its procedures of procurement and financial management rules in South Sudan to prevent corruption and help build institutions for good governance.

The Southern Sudan Multi Donor Trust Fund was established in 2006 to provide funding for post-conflict reconstruction in the region and international donors have committed $526 million to the MDTF, of which the World Bank claims that $326 million, an equivalent of 62 percent has been disbursed to projects completed or under implementation.

Thirty one percent or $163 million has been committed to projects awaiting signing of grant agreements while $30 million or 6 percent has been set aside for a new water project while $7 million remains unprogrammed.

The new development comes just days after the World Bank acknowledged the need to speed up its funding for rebuilding war-torn South Sudan while at the same time ensuring the aid was not wasted through corruption or mismanagement.

Western donors criticised the institution last Thursday for being too slow to disburse the funds from the World Bank Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), one of the main ways for donors to funnel cash into the region.

(Additional reporting by Reuters)