Utilisation versus capacity

An issue that is repeatedly reported since the 18^th Amendment to the Constitution devolved a range of powers and associated budgets to the provinces is that of failure to utilise funds — in some instances partially in others a complete failure. Now the World Bank (WB) has revealed a massive failure to spend money in Sindh, and this despite the release of vast sums to relevant agencies and departments, principally concerned with education sectors where an emergency has been declared. A report in this newspaper says that there has been zero per cent utilisation of funds in 346 education and health projects right across the province. Now the WB, one of the underwriters for many of the schemes swinging in the wind, has started asking questions and is getting some feeble excuses and replies.

It is reported that in view of the letter sent by the WB that education department officials are ‘compiling data’ in order to justify their obvious failures. Excuses thus far range from pleading that the tender process is slow, and approval is needed from ‘concerned quarters’ which presumably means that there are political fingers on the levers of action which are preventing utilisation. Either way these excuses are impossible to relate to all 346 projects which include among many others — the establishment of pre-school education in all the divisions of Sindh for which Rs340 million have been released but not a rupee spent. Computer education — Rs70 million released and again not a rupee spent. The list goes on.

There is no lack of finance to develop a swathe of education projects in Sindh, all of them crucial to the downstream development of the entire province. Not all of the reasons for this are ineptitude or political interference, much of the problem lies in a lack of properly qualified officers to disburse and oversee funding, a competency deficit that was not evident at the time of devolution but is now starkly revealed.

Bridging the competency gap is going to take time — years — as capable officers do not grow on trees and training for fiscally responsible jobs equally takes time. The Law of Unintended Consequences is in play, and will be for decades to come.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2017.

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