The government of Nepal has decided not to accept any foreign aid or project meant for the prime minister's office from January next year to keep away from direct influence of international development agencies, reports said Saturday.

"We want to send message to donor community that we can at least fund the prime minister's office ourselves. If we need to run any project, we will seek help from the ministries-concerned but not from the donor community," a secretary was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post.

The government took a decision to this effect in May 2012 during the tenure of Chief Secretary Madhav Ghimire and to implement its plan, it is preparing a list of government agencies that may or may not need foreign aid or project.

At present, the Asian Development Bank has been funding a project related to information and communication technology at the prime minister's office.

"We had decided to readjust the project under the Ministry of Communications, but the ADB requested us not to do so, as it is phasing out soon," the secretary added. "Apart from this, we do not have any foreign funded project at the prime minister's office right now."

In the past, various donor agencies have funded the prime minister's office. For example, Britain's DFID helped set up a complaint registering telephone hotline "Hello Sarkar" and the Asia Foundation conducted "Governance Reform and Administrative Restructuring" project. With the DFID's funding, the Asia Foundation also set up a gender unit and executed the Gender Based Violence project.

Apart from the prime minister's office, the government plan will also be effective for the president's office.