Poor advertisement for water & power

ISLAMABAD: The two most powerful federal ministries – finance and water & power – are at loggerheads over the issue of spending a huge sum of Rs61.2 million by the latter on advertisement and publicity this year.

According to the budget documents, the ministry of water and power spent Rs61.2 million on advertisement and publicity during financial year 2009-10, which is going to end on June 30. The documents stated that the water and power ministry spent this amount without the approval of parliament and over and above its allocated budget.

The water and power ministry showed the expenditures in its books under the head of operating expenses.

The government would have used the money on some constructive work instead of winning the war through a media campaign, which it lost on the ground anyway, said Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, a member of the Public Accounts Committee and PML-N lawmaker.

Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmad Bilour had recently stated that the Railways were incurring losses to the tune of billions, as the finance ministry did not provide money to import or locally manufacture locomotives. The locally manufactured engine would cost the exchequer Rs30 million and an imported one Rs60 million, said Bilour.

This outgoing financial year was probably the worst year for Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf who had boasted to bring an end to the hours’ long, unannounced load-shedding by December 2009. But he badly failed to meet his own deadline and opted to launch a campaign in the electronic and print media in the name of creating awareness among the masses.

The ministry’s strategic goal is the availability of uninterrupted cheap electricity and irrigation water to the population of Pakistan for the socio-economic uplift.

According to the Economic Survey, power outages pulled down the economic growth by 2.5 per cent of Gross Domestic Product this fiscal year alone.  This means, had there been no energy crisis the economic growth would have been 6.6 per cent.

However, the ministry of water and power denied obtaining any supplementary grant for incurring expenditure on advertisement and publicity. The official spokesman said the finance division withdrew the grant of Rs61.2 million on January 14, 2010.

Interestingly, the finance division has obtained the supplementary grant’s approval from the National Assembly on January 25. The grant was part of the Rs370 billion supplementary demands for grants and appropriations, 2009-10. A senior official of the office of the Auditor-General of Pakistan said both the ministries have to resolve the dispute, as it would result in an audit objection. He said if the finance ministry was at fault then it was a blunder and would be considered as an attempt at misleading parliament.

“In a civilised country the finance secretary or the finance minister has to resign on such blunders,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2010.