Goan authorities' lethargy costs Rs 5 million in WB grants

Lack of planning and the poor implementation of AIDs control measures in the state since 1992 has cost the Goa government over Rs 5 million in World Bank grants.

Despite the WB's allowing Rs 8 million to the state for its AIDS control programme, the Goan government could utilise only Rs 3 million. As the grants were linked to its efficient utilisation, the WB did not release any in 1996, forcing the state to depend entirely on the central government. But such was the lethargy of the Goan health planners that they even failed to make use of this -- of the Rs 7 million received from the Centre, 65 per cent was left unutilised!

"Irregular meetings of the high-level committees concerned made monitoring and evaluation insignificant and ineffective," states a Comptroller and Auditor General of India report.

No programme strategies were formulated and no targets were fixed to carry out public awareness programmes. The state empowered committee, headed by the chief secretary, met only eight times since 1993, against the target of 38 meetings, the report noted.

Meanwhile, the number of AIDS and HIV positive cases has shown a rapid rise. While the number of such cases detected in 1992 and 1993 were less than two per cent, it rose to 7 per cent by 1995. It went up to 11 per cent in the first three months of 1996.