PHA seeks Rs310m supplementary grant

Authority unable to fill 950 vacant posts due to shortage of funds

DIJKOT:

The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has sought a supplementary grant of R310 million from the Punjab government to clear the dues of contractors, maintenance and repairing expenditure and salary of employees.

As per a letter sent to the provincial government recently, the Faisalabad PHA is maintaining 833 acres of green area comprising 345 parks. When the authority was established in 2014, its sanctioned strength of employees was 1,526 but about 950 of the posts are lying vacant and around 700 daily wager workers have been engaged to meet the deficiency of field staff. The regular vacant posts are not being filled due to scarcity of funds.

Initially, Rs400 million annually was released to the PHA for salaries along with the budget for non-development. However, during the past five years the grant has been reduced to Rs250 million, which is insufficient to meet the salary expenditure.

A PHA official said the government had increased the salaries by 10 to 15 per cent annually during the period, while other expenses had also increased because of inflation.

On the other hand, support for non-development expenditures was stopped by the government in 2017.

The financial constraints have adversely affected the performance of the authority.

The grant in aid received by the PHA in 2016-17 was Rs400 million, which has dropped to Rs250 million in 2022-23. The expected income of the PHA during the ongoing financial year is Rs526 million and the total expenditure Rs835 million.

Thus a budget deficitto the tune of Rs309.27 million has been estimated.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2023.