Education Sector Loan
WB warns suspension of $250m credit
The World Bank has warned that it would not disburse an additional US$250 million credit for continuation of an education sector project unless the government meets certain conditions and addresses anomalies in previous purchase deals, officials said.
WB wanted that the government should pay back around US $1,50,000 and take actions against the perpetuators of 23 purchase deals for the Secondary Education Quality Access and Enhancement Project funded by it.
The Economic Relations Division officials told New Age that WB brought the allegations last month.
In a letter, the WB told ERD that they would suspend the additional credit programme to the project unless the government takes care of the anomalies.
The multilateral donor agency never brought allegation of corruptions in education sector projects in the past, said the officials, adding that the WB’s previous allegations of corruption were mainly with the transport and energy sectors.
Last year, the WB suspended $1.2 billion loan to the Padma Bridge project citing ‘conspiracy of corruption’ by former communication minister Syed Abul Hossain in the country’s most priority project.
SEQAEP project director Mohammad Shahid Bakhtiar Alam admitted the fact.
He said the government had already agreed to meet the conditions attached by the WB to get the additional fund.
He said anomalies identified by the WB occurred before he was appointed as the project director last year.
Alam cited misunderstanding between the government and the WB for the unwarranted situation in the highly successful project aimed at improving education at the secondary level.
He said the WB itself praised the outcome of the project saying the number of students and enhanced quality of education at the secondary level went beyond the target.
In a statement last April, WB said SEQAEP surpassed the initial targets for students appearing at the Secondary School Certificate exams and the secondary school completion rates with around 210,000 poor students appearing at the SSC exams in 125 Upazilas.
Launched in 2008, the project emphasises on improvement of secondary education quality through a series of academic support interventions and incentive schemes. The WB suggested the government that the project should be continued.
The project systematically measures the quality of learning and academic competencies of students.
Meanwhile, the ministry of finance has decided to cut the amount of fund that will be paid back to WB from the current year’s budget of the education ministry, officials said.
It also decided to ask the education ministry take action against the violators of the procurement rules of the WB, they said.
Education ministry officials said they had already suspended project support to 23 schools and madrasas following the WB allegation. Of the schools and madrasas, six are in Dinajpur, four in Rangpur and Barisal, three apiece in Rajshahi and Thakurgoan and one each in Khulna, Sylhet and Chittagong.
Courtesy of New Age
