Speaking at a seminar organized by an NGO, international policy analyst of environmental defence Shannon Lawrence said the unsustainable ADB projects failed to produce lasting economic or social benefits for the country.

Sharing the findings of an analysis of project audit reports for Pakistan from a study titled 'The Asian Development Bank: In its own words', Ms Lawrence said the same mistakes were being repeated again and again in different ADB projects over the years at the expense of taxpayers who had to bear the ultimate consequences of badly executed policy initiatives and programmes.

However, a representative of the ADB present on the occasion tried to dispel the impression that things had remained static over the years. Responding to allegations levelled against the bank, head of the portfolio management unit of the ADB Sangpa Tamang said the recommendations of the report were being looked into by the headquarters with directives to address the fault-lines.

As part of the new initiatives, Mr Tamang said the bank's headquarters had approved establishment of Operations Evaluation Department as an independent entity separate from the ADB.

For accountability purposes, he said, a new regional sustainable development department would be looking into the sustainability of the projects and checking compliance.

According to the report, Indonesia and Pakistan are ADB's first and second largest cumulative borrowers having received more than one third of total funds disbursed during the 36-year history of the bank.

Since 1968, the report said, Pakistan had received more than $12.6billion in loans from the ADB making it the second largest cumulative borrower after Indonesia. At the end of 2001, the ADB funding for Pakistan increased by 148 per cent to $957 million.

In 2002, the country received more than $1 billion and also became the top client of ADB's concessional lending window, the report added. Interestingly enough, the report based on ADB documents identifies a disturbing pattern of systematic failure on the part of the bank.

"A striking number of the ADB-financed projects in Pakistan suffer from design flaws and lack of attention to thorough project preparation." In the execution of projects, the report noted a pattern of absence of Benefit Monitoring and Evaluation (BME) systems and baseline data, lack of consultation with prospective beneficiaries and user groups, lack of community participation, adverse impacts on social equity and income equality that have fostered ethnic instability in certain ADB projects.

Moreover, the report said, even projects considered 'successful' by the ADB auditors benefited large landholders at the expense of small farmers and terminated five years behind schedule like the South Rohri Fresh Groundwater Irrigation Project.

Similarly, the report said, the Balochistan Fisheries Development Project ignored local customs and preferences in project design while failing to account for environmental impacts.

In the Third Health and Population Project, the report said, the ADB failed to assess the impact of project or ensure that benefit monitoring and evaluation systems were implemented as required by loan convenants.

The report said in the Chashma Right Bank Irrigation Project, the ADB failed to conduct any comprehensive analysis of socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions in the nearly 30- year implementation time of various stages of the project.

According to recent estimates from organizations working with communities in the project area, more than 50,000 people have been or will be negatively impacted by the extensive irrigation project.