K-P Governor House expenses rise sharply

Significant increase attributed to hike in utility bills

PESHAWAR:

The expenditure of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor House and its staff has increased by more than Rs50 million during the current financial year.

This is mainly due to an increase in payments for utilities including electricity, gas and telephone.

According to the budget expenditure documents, expenditures on account of utilities have increased by Rs40 million while expenditure on account of entertainment and gifts increased by Rs15 million.

In addition, spending from discretionary funds also increased by Rs10 million while expenses of petrol for conveyance including an airplane has also reached Rs600,000 per annum.

According to the documents for the financial year 2021-22, the budget of the K-P Governor House was Rs254 million last year.

Governor Shah Farman spent more than Rs257.5 million last year while the budget for this financial year has increased by more than Rs300 million.

According to documents, the expenditure on electricity, gas and telephone of the Governor House has exceeded by about Rs40 million.

A budget of over Rs30 million has been sanctioned for the payment of electricity bill this year whereas Rs26.2 million was deposited under the same head last year.

Similarly, Rs6 million was set aside for the gas bill last year but the expenditure stood at Rs8.7 million. This year, Rs9 million has been set aside for the payment of gas bill.

Last year, over Rs27.7 million was spent on payment of telephone bills while this year the budget has been approved for another Rs28 million.

This year more than Rs6 million has been sanctioned on account of fuel and air travel allowances. It is pertinent to note that staff of the K-P Governor House spent Rs9 million on travel expenses.

The documents also stated that the governor spent Rs15 million on entertainment and gifts.

Likewise, another Rs40 million has been earmarked in the budget as allowances for employees which will add up to two dozen allowances already received by employees.

The documents added that about Rs1 million was spent annually on uniforms for the employees of the Governor House while another Rs1.1 million will be spent this year for the same.

It was also reported that new plants worth around Rs6.9 million were purchased for the Governor House whereas repairing of employees’ vehicles cost more than Rs3 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2021.