Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, spoke about the development scheme in Fata. PHOTO: SAMEER RAZZAQ/EXPRESS
PESHAWAR: Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan has expressed concerns over the initiation of development schemes in Fata at the end of the financial year and making payments to contractors in a hurry without ensuring quality or required progress.
According to a handout issued on Sunday, Mehtab directed relevant authorities to only make payments once project work has begun on the ground and is in line with the approved qualitative and quantitative specifications.
While issuing directives to all political agents in Fata and the frontier regions as well as line departments, Mehtab said every financial year begins from July 1 and ends on June 30, but it has been observed that no work was being done on development schemes approved in the budget and the Annual Development Programme during the first three months of approval.
The handout quoted the governor as saying that huge allocations were being used following a lapse of several months and work on approved projects normally only began near the end of the fiscal year. “Due to the shortage of time, such development schemes cannot be completed normally,” said Mehtab. He added these projects are shown as completed but only on paper for the sole purpose of getting bills related to the project approved.
“Such irregularities show massive corruption in the departments and will not be tolerated any further,” said the governor. He added the matter of development schemes warrants extreme care and caution on the part of political agents, FR administrations and line departments. Mehtab directed these authorities to ensure maximum utilisation of development funds while strictly observing rules and regulations.
“Every penny of the funds sanctioned for the tribal areas is to be utilised for the welfare of tribespeople and efforts would be made to complete many schemes for them,” the handout stated, quoting the governor.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2015.
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