Line ministries to handle mega projects
Most mega projects cross state or national borders and involve a mix of private and government spending.
Sri Lanka’s latest procedure of approving all mega projects including infrastructure and environmentally-sensitive projects is to be changed on a directive by the president.
Currently all mega projects come under a few, powerful ministers.
Considering the crucial nature of such projects for the future of the country and individual livelihoods, President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a directive to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Management (CCEM) ensuring that line ministries submit the relevant, memorandum on mega projects separately to the cabinet for its approval.
The same procedure should be followed in policy matters as well, the president has informed.
The current practice of handling such projects by a few key ministries should be immediately stopped and the CCEM should take a decision to entrust the responsibility and authority of selection and approval with the relevant line ministry and the Cabinet of Ministers respectively, the president stated in a note to the CCEM.
Most mega projects cross state or national borders and involve a mix of private and government spending.
The national government, foreign governments local government institutions, different environmental and health standards, varied degrees of skills and wage expectations, and dozens of private contractors, suppliers and end users are involved in such projects.
Just one issue can stall the mega project process indefinitely and therefore it is better to adhere to proper procedure stipulated for BOO/BOT/ BOOT projects, the president has suggested.
It has been revealed that the existing procedure is not being followed in certain mega project approval process.
Therefore the CCEM has been directed to study the project proposal and cabinet memorandum as well as to find out as to whether the proper procedure is followed or not, before granting its approval for mega projects.
The existing standard procedure is that all priority projects identified by the respective line ministries should be discussed with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) and a financial and technical viability report to screen such projects needs to be prepared jointly by the proposing agency and vetted by the BOI for clearance by the Ministry of Finance.
Under the new procedure recommended, the president has pointed out that once the clearance from the Ministry of Finance is obtained, the line ministry should present a Cabinet Memorandum including a formal project proposal seeking approval of the Cabinet to continue with the project. This procedure should be followed along with the other new changes including the CCEM involvement made by the present government.