K-P spent only 35% of development funds

Money left over from almost all sectors

PESHAWAR:

The provincial government used a mere 35 per cent of its developmental budget in the outgoing fiscal year 2019-20.

Budget documents available with The Express Tribune showed that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government had allocated Rs319 billion in the ongoing financial year. Of this, Rs157.21 billion was released and only Rs112 billion could be spent.

However, the K-P government has claimed that by the time a final report on the funds utilised in the current financial is received, around Rs220 billion would have been spent - indicating that around Rs108 billion would have been spent in the last weeks of the outgoing fiscal year.

Financial documents of the provincial government show that of the total allocation, the provincial government had provided Rs108 billion. Moreover, Rs83 billion were allocated for the merged districts and Rs82 billion were expected to arrive from abroad through various funding and donor organisations.

However, the government revised its total outlay of the provincial annual development plan (ADP) downwards to Rs220 billion. A breakup for this, documents showed, Rs95 billion were from the province’s own resources, Rs4 billion were for the district ADP, Rs38 billion for the development programmes of merged districts and Rs65 billion from foreign resources. The final count also included Rs17.9 billion for Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), which was not part of the original actual ADP.

The document further conceded that billions allocated for different sectors during the outgoing financial year could not be spent. This included Rs3.37 billion allocated for the agriculture sector of the settled districts, Rs150.78 million for religious and minorities affairs, Rs150.24 million for the provincial board of revenue, Rs350.60 million for construction of buildings, Rs2.92 billion for the district ADP, Rs3 billion for sanitation services and water supply schemes, Rs8.87 billion for primary and secondary education, Rs1.73 billion for energy and power, Rs3.7 million for the environment, Rs40 million for the excise and taxation sector, Rs60.39 million for finance, Rs130.78 million for food, Rs3.69 billion for forests, Rs41 billion for interior, Rs250 million for housing, Rs1.23 billion for industries, Rs5.5 million for labour, a billion rupees for the law and justice sector, Rs2.31 billion for local government, Rs12.14 billion for multi-sector development, Rs160 million for population welfare, and Rs8 billion for special measures.

Moreover, Rs1.72 billion for special initiatives, Rs2.74 billion for sports and tourism, Rs122 million for science and information technology, Rs1.5 billion for transport, Rs5 billion for civic development and Rs3 billion for the water sector could not be spent.

Of the Rs59 billion allocated under the 10-year development programme for the merged areas, only Rs13.58 billion were spent.

The government also failed to spend any money for development of different sectors in the merged districts including revenue, religious affairs, mineral, information technology, transport, law and Justice, excise and taxation, and labour.