The federal govt’s big Fata funding lie

Perhaps Islamabad didn’t think anyone would actually take the paperwork apart

PESHAWAR: The secret when spending government money is to do it fast, because if you don’t spend it in time, the government takes it back. This is what is happening with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

The bureaucrats at the Fata Secretariat in Islamabad have been so slow to use their budget of Rs24.5 billion in the fiscal year 2017-18 that is wrapping up in a month, that they will almost certainly lose Rs10 billion.

The loss isn't just financial. The bureaucrats have not done the paperwork in time for the posting of 5,500 education and health staff, who are sorely needed in a place that has rudimentary schools and hospitals. Similarly, work has not been done on the dilapidated roads and buildings or nonexistent irrigation and water systems.

The proof of this fiasco lies on page 103 of the section on the budget in a Safron ministry document on the public sector development programme (PSDP). Despite the desperate need for uplift work in Fata, the bureaucrats have not asked for a single rupee more than what it was given for FY 2017-18. Fata's needs were not assessed because if they were, surely the bureaucrats would have asked for more money in the next budget. As a result, Fata will get the same budget as it did last year: a paltry 24.5 billion rupees. For comparison, Diamer-Bhasha Dam alone is getting Rs23 billion.



Forget about money for new work. The bureaucrats in the Fata Secretariat haven't even bothered with managing ongoing schemes. One such scheme is the widening of the 45 km Ghalanai Mohmand Ghat Road. The road costs 3.7 billion rupees and the funding was given the green signal by the federal government on February 7, 2018. The FWO was given the job and it spent almost two billion rupees in advance.

The FWO has widened a 14km portion of the road up to Nahakki Tunnel and work is in full swing on the remaining 31km strip from Nahakki to Mohmand Ghat. The FWO has been fast-tracking the project, which is nearly 70% done. The project could swiftly be completed if the centre allocated the rest of the Rs3.1 billion required, but instead, the PSDP has budgeted only Rs500 million for next year.

This is also not just any road. As peace has returned, more and more people from Bajaur have been using the new Nahakki Tunnel since September last year. This road is also the shortest route from Chitral, Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Bajaur Agency and Mohmand Agency to Peshawar. It also offers an alternate route to Jalalabad and Kabul via the Gursal border crossing into Kunar province of Afghanistan. A scheme of such strategic importance surely deserved more than the paltry sum allocated.

In the budget for the fiscal year that is ending in June, the only new project Fata got was the Rs5 billion Nawaz Sharif Model Town in North Waziristan Agency. However, the federal government has deleted the scheme from the PSDP document that was tabled in the budget for debate in parliament.



The same happened with the Bosaq Hydropower project for Bajaur, which was supposed to be allocated Rs5 billion, but actually got just Rs500 million. Here too, shoddy paperwork was done. Good planners know where to slot in projects properly. Bosaq was put under the Safron section, but it should have appeared under the PSDP's power division as this would have given Fata what it deserved in terms of federal PSDP funding.

At the heart of the matter is how the bureaucrats think about, plan, document and assess what Fata needs. Everyone knows that this region is the lowest at 73 on the multidimensional poverty index. But little thought is being given in Islamabad on ways to push livelihood projects in this region.

This just means that Fata has always been and continues to be neglected when it comes to giving it a share of the public sector schemes that are managed by the 45 ministries that the federal government is still in charge of. It is small wonder then that the only spending that has changed people's lives has come from projects like the USAID-funded Peshawar-Torkham Road.

A deeper and closer look at the documents for Fata's budget throws up other gems. Take the much vaunted and fancily named Rs100 billion a year Ten-Year Fata Socio Economic Development Plan courtesy the FATA Reforms Commission Report. It finds itself delicately and inconspicuously placed at Serial No 1095 under the Special Programmes Section of the PSDP. It has been given just Rs10 billion.

This makes it appear that the figure was deliberately kept low keep Fata backwards, or that some fancy footwork is being done to prevent the right people from spending the money on Fata.

First, take the actual amount. The federal government has conveniently allocated just 10 per cent of the amount it claimed it would offer.



This was a commitment the federal government made to Fata for the next ten years in order to bring it at par with the rest of the country. Even if the federal government were to follow its NFC formula, the figure should have been Rs42.5 billion.

Second, the Ten-Year Fata Development Plan has been placed under 'Special Programmes' instead of under Safron. This matters.

The Special Programmes are managed by the Planning Commission, which can decide to not even spend that Rs10 billion. By not putting the Ten-Year Plan under Safron, responsibility is being given to departments that do not actually work on Fata.

It is not as if there wasn't a proper way to do this. When the reforms were proposed for Fata, the commission said Safron should get a Directorate of Transition and Reforms (DTR). It was supposed to ensure that the reforms would be done. But the without funding, the DTR and Safron cannot do much for Fata.

These are just some of the questions that beg an open, transparent, educated, inclusive and critical debate about the future of Fata. Otherwise, it becomes clear that the federal government doesn't really care about getting people back to work in what is Pakistan's more neglected region.

Fata has lived under 70 years of draconian laws. Its people have eked out a living in a harsh terrain where the government's service delivery was slim at best. It has seen 18 years of military operations and millions of people displaced. Fata is the place where thousands of Pakistani soldiers have embraced martyrdom. And yet, it appears that as far as Islamabad is concerned, it doesn't even deserve one per cent of any 'Marshall Plan'.