Depts utilise only 0.4pc of Rs83bn funds for merged districts.

Byline: Manzoor Ali

PESHAWAR -- The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government departments have utilised only 0.4 per cent of the Rs83 billion merged districts development outlay in the first six months of the current fiscal, documents show.

The documents available with Dawn showed that the latest review of the merged district's development portfolio, which took place on Dec 16, had even angered Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who formally conveyed his displeasure to 13 departments at their poor show lately.

The merged districts development portfolio of Rs83 billion includes Rs59 billion Accelerated Implementation Plan (AIP) and Rs23.9 billion annual development programme.

The provincial government has released Rs8.9 billion in the current financial year on account on both components and of that amount, only Rs3.7 billion was utilised in six months.

CM adviser promises speedy work on projects next year

Adviser to the chief minister for merged districts Ajmal Wazir told Dawn that work on development projects in merged districts would speed up in the next year.

'Starting from Jan, work on development projects will be carried out on a war footing,' he said, adding that the government was busy introducing a mechanism to ensure transparency and build the capacity of the government departments.

The adviser said transparency, capacity building and monitoring mechanism were of the utmost importance for optimal utilisation of the region's development outlay.

The documents showed that the government had so far released Rs4.7 billion under the AIP and Rs1.7 billion of it was utilised.

The major chunk of the released money amounting to Rs1.7 billion was spent by the relief, rehabilitation and settlement department followed by the industries department (Rs370 million), while rest of the departments showed zero utilisation.

Of 188 PC-1s under the AIP, only 31 have so far been approved by the relevant forums, while work has begun on 13 only.

The elementary and secondary education department has 44 unapproved PC-1s, health 32, agriculture and roads 11 each, governance and sports eight each and irrigation and water management seven.

Under the Rs23.9 billion ADP, Rs4.2 billion was released but the government departments utilised Rs2 billion of it. Of the 277 total ADP PC-1s, 216 have yet to be approved by the relevant forums. Until now, only 61 have been approved.

The E and SE department has the largest number of 46 unapproved PC-1s, roads department 23, local government...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT