Millennium Development: Goals Funds worth Rs12.5 billion diverted to other schemes

Money will be spent in constituencies of parliamentarians.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has diverted Rs12.5 billion funds allocated for implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for carrying out development activities in the constituencies of parliamentarians, reinitiating the process of spending on schemes identified by public representatives.

The Ministry of Planning and Development has handed over the funds to the Cabinet Division for subsequent allocations for the projects which will be carried out in the constituencies of the parliamentarians, confirmed an official of the ministry.

The practice of diverting funds for other than intended purposes has begun after a gap of almost two years. Last time, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf diverted billions of rupees for spending in constituencies desired by the Pakistan Peoples Party leadership. This became the cause of a lot of negative publicity in the media.

After coming to power, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered to stop the People’s Works Programmes which were used as tools to finance projects of the parliamentarians. The premier had also surrendered his discretionary funds.



However, the government said there was no comparison of this diversion with the one carried out in the PPP’s tenure, as these funds will be spent by following all rules and regulations.

They said the ultimate goal of this spending is to improve the quality of life and alleviate poverty, which are also the areas defined by the United Nations under its MDGs programme.

The eight MDGs are eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

While approving the current financial year’s Public Sector Development Programme, the National Economic Council (NEC) had approved Rs12.5 billion for Pakistan’s MDGs and the Community Development Programme. After the approval of the budget, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal had hailed the move and said the allocations would help achieve the MDGs, where Pakistan was lagging on most of the indicators.

A committee, headed by Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, will have the final say in allocation of the Rs12.5-billion funds to the individual schemes. The minimum limit of the development scheme has been set at Rs500,000 while there is no upper cap.

The funds will be spent on electricity, gas, farm roads, culverts and embankments – the traditional areas that had been funded under the parliamentarian schemes in the previous tenures of the PPP and PML-N.

The funds could also be spent on sanitation, street pavements, education and health, said the officials.

Planning ministry officials said that the community development schemes will be recommended by the local community and confirmed by the respective District Coordination Officer (DCO). The officials said the purpose of involving the DCOs was that the funds are spent only on unmet needs and there is no duplication of work.

However, the ground reality is that the DCOs work according to the whims of the provincial government and the pubic representatives.

The officials said in the light of the SC judgment in Raja Pervez Ashraf’s case, the prime minister has already directed to complete work on the parliamentarian schemes where more than half of the work was finished during the PPP tenure.

In order to ensure that work on any of the schemes initiated in the tenure of the PML-N is not rolled back in future, the government has framed rules that bar transferring funds from these schemes to any other area.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 14^th, 2015.

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