Over four billion in multi-year project liability is being processed only after consulting with Artha.

The number of multiyear projects is rising annually, and the Ministry of Finance has responded by taking certain actions to address the issue of incomplete projects and payments for partially completed work that are not made on time.

The relevant ministries and agencies have just received instructions from the Ministry of Finance not to move on with the multi-year contract agreement procedure without first consulting with it regarding finance.

Mahesh Bhattarai, Joint Secretary of the Finance Ministry, stated that the purpose of this arrangement is to stop the practice of forwarding multi-year contract files to the Finance Ministry without prior consultation. Furthermore, the Ministry was instructed to submit updated project details from the previous fiscal year's multi-year procurement process.

The multi-year procurement master plan may be approved by the Secretary of the relevant Ministry in accordance with the Public Procurement Regulations; however, resource consent must be obtained first. This guarantees that the budget may be maintained within the Ministry of Planning's medium-term (three-year) expenditure structure.

However, there is a propensity to include initiatives with low budgets and uncertain resources in multi-year plans as a result of political pressure. An official from the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport claims that one more way that projects are being delayed is by the tendency to require projects to move forward with less funding. But since last year, this trend has started reversing.

The Ministry of Finance reports that the total obligation for multi-year projects is in excess of four billion. The Salbasali project has resulted in a 6 trillion liability. However, the government has not been able to set aside more than 3 billion for capital projects each year. A large number of these are allocated for upcoming projects. In a similar vein, maintenance costs a lot of money.

Because there is no guarantee of resources, the project's efficacy decreases as liability rises. The Planning Commission must now be consulted in advance, as required by the Ministry of Finance, in order to enhance this.

It is anticipated that this required engagement will facilitate the process of initially determining the project's priority, if the federal government has authority over it, and whether there are enough funds in the budget. By doing this, the plan's effectiveness and risk of financial obligation are both increased.

In multi-year projects, the primary issue is that the project is budgeted without guaranteeing resources, and even after the announcement, the contracting procedure is not carried out. This has made it more likely that project costs will rise and the public benefit will be delayed.

The Multi-Year Contract Procedure 2080 is an attempt by the government to overcome these problems. This means that a project can only be included in a multi-year contract if it can be finished in two or three years. Projects of national pride are governed by multi-year contracts throughout the duration of the project.

Now, twenty-five percent of the funds have to be allocated in the first year of any multi-year project. When contract resources are agreed upon, it establishes a fiscal year commitment and guarantees that allotments are made within budgetary constraints.

It is anticipated that the new arrangement will put an end to the irregularities in the contract and resource agreement processes, resulting in a timely project completion and a decrease in the issue of cost escalation.

"Working according to the new procedure will solve the problems seen in the contract process," stated Federation of Nepal Construction Professionals president Ravi Singh. But the administration hasn't yet been able to resolve historical issues. The payment of completed work has been a major issue for the past two fiscal years. Both at the provincial and local levels, there is the same issue. The builders claim that there are still payments owing to the Union, State, and Center from last year totaling roughly 20 billion.