Bureaucracy decides to stop fund release without project documents

Decision comes after chief justice hinted at taking notice of discretionary spending

ISLAMABAD: The bureaucracy has finally decided to meet all procedural requirements before disbursing funds under the prime minister’s directives, but it comes only after the budget for discretionary spending has surged to Rs73 billion in less than nine months of the current fiscal year.

Top bureaucracy of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning decided last week that funds would not be disbursed in future without first securing approved project documents, said sources in the finance ministry.

The decision came days after the chief justice of Pakistan hinted at taking notice of discretionary development spending. The move also came following a surge in fund releases for discretionary spending that reached Rs73.8 billion in just eight and a half months. The figure constituted three-fourths of the annual allocation.

The decision was taken to bring some sanctity to the release of development funds ahead of general elections, sources said. Another reason was to ward off pressure from the bureaucracy and shift some responsibility on to politicians.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has so far issued about four dozen directives for allocating funds for the schemes being undertaken in the constituencies of National Assembly members of the ruling party.

The government’s five-year term is going to end in early June and elections are expected in July.

The discretionary spending flouts the Supreme Court’s judgement in the case of former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf who had given roughly Rs45 billion for spending in his constituency and adjoining areas.

Now, the people concerned would also be required to secure approval of a scheme from a competent forum, be it provincial government or federal government body, sources said. These people would also be responsible for securing administrative approval from the executing agency.

According to the current practice, after getting the PM’s directive, MNAs or their staff would start visiting the finance ministry and the planning ministry for securing the release of funds. However now, the finance ministry will authorise spending only after approval of the scheme.

The planning ministry would sanction the budget after seeing authorisation and administrative approval of the project, sources said. So far, the prime minister has issued more than 45 directives for politically motivated schemes.

“The planning ministry will not release funds without first meeting the formalities,” said Planning Secretary Shoaib Siddiqui while confirming the development. This would dismiss the perception that ministries were not acting on the PM’s directives, he said.

The premier’s directives would be honoured and the planning ministry had so far cleared all the directives after meeting the formalities, the secretary said, claiming provincial governments were not sending approved schemes, but were throwing responsibility on the planning ministry.

From July through March 16 of the current fiscal year, the planning ministry distributed Rs73.8 billion for spending on gas, electricity and road projects in the constituencies of lawmakers of the PML-N and allied parties, according to documents.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2018.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.