The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide $85 million to Balochistan as a soft term loan for Balochistan Resource Management Programme (BRMP) and Devolved Social Sector Programme (DSSP), Balochistan Finance Minister Syed Ehsan Shah said. The ADB will also provide to the Balochistan province $5 million as grant for health sector. The minister told the reporters that this amount would be spent by district governments on four sectors including health, education, sanitation and water supply. The soft loan on a nominal one percent mark up will be used for strengthening new local government system, Shah said. The government, the minister said, will distribute Rs 2 billion to the districts during the current fiscal year. It will issue grant to the districts under Balochistan Local Government Performance Grant Rules 2005 and will allocate to various districts on the basis of population and area through Provincial Finance Commission. More funds will be granted to the districts according to their performance. Shah said the programmes would be monitored jointly by audit committees at union and district council level and citizen community boards. Besides, the provincial government will also monitor the pace of progress of works through Auditor General.
