K-P plans Rs40bn saving through austere ways

All departments directed to cut down on expenditures

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government on Friday issued guidelines to the entire government machinery, asking them to cut down on their expenditures and utilise the savings, thereby, for carrying out development work and fulfilling other official obligations.

On top of the measures to be adopted as part of an austerity drive, the provincial government has put a complete ban on the purchase of new vehicles. It has also declared that no new posts will be created in any department, except in case of completed development projects.

The K-P finance department said that austerity measures would be adopted in FY2017-18 that commences from July 1.



Under the austerity measures, foreign treatment and holding of workshops, seminars and trainings abroad at government expenses have also been banned. Besides, holding seminars and workshops at five-star hotels and construction of government houses for public servants and public representatives are also prohibited.

All administrative secretaries and heads of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies are directed to conduct meetings of departmental accounts committee regularly under intimation to the Finance Department for ensuring internal audit of their respective departments and organisations.

And in order to achieve revenue targets assigned to the departments for the current fiscal year, the Finance Department shall conduct monthly meetings to be attended by ministers and administrative secretaries of the departments concerned.

The Finance Department has also put a ban on the recruitment of contingent paid staff; appointments against leave vacancies without approval; and appointments against vacant posts without a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the concerned surplus pool.

Moreover, appointments against vacant posts of dying cadres have also been banned, with the principal accounting officer directed to ensure implementation while being given authority to initiate disciplinary action against any appointment made against vacant posts of dying cadre previously.

“Developmental schemes involving creation of posts shall be cleared from the Finance Department, and the Administrative Department shall restrict their expenditures to the funds released,” an official handout from the Finance Department says, adding that the Administration Department shall not ask for additional grants or supplementary grants.

As part of the austerity measures, no funds shall be used for annual and special repairs of the roads and buildings that have been repaired during the last three years. However, flood and earthquake-related incidents have been exempted from the directive.



A Finance Department official told The Express Tribune that the department had envisaged an estimated Rs40 billion saving through the austerity measures during the new fiscal year. He said the budget for FY2017-18 reflected the Rs40 billion figure.

“We have adopted the [austerity] measures to make up for shortfall in federal receipts and government’s own revenue targets,” said the official. “The funds to be saved can be used in development projects and for covering other liabilities,” he added.