Peshawar govt failed to use over 65% of development funds

In 2016-17, Annual Development Programme allocated Rs813m for Peshawar, only Rs275.5m utilised

PESHAWAR: Despite tall claims of good governance in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the Peshawar district government led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has failed to utilise over 65 per cent of development funds allocated in the last fiscal year.

Under the district Annual Development Programme (ADP), in 2016-17, Rs813.3 million were allocated for the Peshawar district government.

Budget documents for the fiscal year 2017-18 show that this year, the district government only used Rs275.57 million of those funds or just 33.89 per cent of the funds were utilised.



The district government had earmarked Rs80.1 million in expenses for education in the district. However, it ended up spending just Rs9.3 million. Moreover, despite the fact that Rs88.4 million was earmarked for social welfare, the district government only spent Rs15 million.



Earlier this week, the Peshawar district government had unveiled Rs10 billion budget for the fiscal year 2017-18. The budget, per the K-P Local Government Act 2013, was supposed to have been presented much earlier when the fiscal year started.

The budget was presented by City District Nazim Asim Khan in the District Council hall during a budget session convened by Naib Nazim Qasim Ali Shah.

Addressing the council, Asim said that they expect to receive around Rs9.4 billion in the fiscal year 2017-18.

According to the budget papers, the provincial government, under the Provincial Finance Commission, will provide over Rs9.2 billion for the district government. Over Rs590 million would be generated from the district local fund for both development and non-development expenditures.

The budget papers stated that over Rs246million would be provided as a grant from the provincial government for various devolved departments.

The allocation for district ADP in the ongoing year budget has been reduced from Rs813.13 to over Rs686 million since two of the devolved departments were taken back by the provincial government, including the Public Health Engineering and the Communication and Works departments.



Asim said that of the ADP allocations, Rs137.386 million has been earmarked for education, Rs103.03 million for women development, agriculture and sports affairs.

Moreover, Rs10 million have been earmarked to pay for utility bills, Rs340.5 million for water and sanitation, while Rs2 million each have been set aside for rabies vaccination and for district health office (DHO), laboratory equipment at DHOs, while Rs5 million have been outlined for purchasing medicine.

Furthermore, Rs30 million has been earmarked for installing dust bins in the 92 union councils of Peshawar. The government has opted to spend Rs55 million to install water coolers in mosques in the city and for anti-encroachment drives.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2017.