Debt pushes RCB to enforce financial discipline

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) is grappling with an outstanding financial liability of Rs9.059 billion, owed to various departments, contractors, and service providers as of September 30, 2025.

In a bid to steer the organisation out of this financial quagmire, the newly appointed Cantonment Executive Officer (CEO), Chaudhry Amir Rasheed Warriach, has introduced a financial discipline policy aimed at improving revenue recovery, expanding income sources, and curtailing non-essential expenditure.

According to official RCB documents issued in October, total pending payments amount to Rs9,059.019 million, distributed across several categories: Original Works (M&R) Rs422.00m, carried over works Rs119.13m, Cantonment Board Store (Sanitation & Water Supply) Rs 47.19m, stationery Rs16.009m, CB sanitation workshop Rs51m, medicines (Bulk LP) Rs24.12m, staff share payments Rs171.87m, computerisation share Rs22.26m, loans from other Cantonment Boards Rs358.5m, pension commutation and gratuity (Inter-Board) Rs64.87m, commutation and gratuity Rs37.44m, advertisement/PPRA Rs5.91 m, Khanpur Dam Phase-I (O&M Charges) and Sangjani Water Treatment Plant Rs7,718.72m.

In addition to these liabilities, the RCB must also meet monthly salary and pension obligations exceeding Rs240m, as well as an annual CB Store budget surpassing Rs110m.

To confront this mounting fiscal pressure, CEO Warriach has implemented a comprehensive financial strategy centred on ensuring full revenue recovery, broadening the Board's income base, and enforcing stringent expenditure controls.

The core objective of the new policy is to clear outstanding dues and stabilise the Board's financial position, thereby enabling the upgradation of essential civic amenities within the cantonment area.

At present, residents of Rawalpindi Cantonment — from upscale neighbourhoods to densely populated backstreets — continue to endure deteriorating municipal conditions. Despite being designated a "carpeted" thoroughfare, Peshawar Road remains marred by potholes, while adjoining streets suffer from a lack of patchwork and maintenance, allowing road depressions to deepen.

Meanwhile, the absence of functional streetlights leaves both affluent and inner residential areas in darkness soon after dusk, and broken footpaths, uncovered manholes, and dilapidated drainage and sanitation systems reflect a growing state of urban neglect across the cantonment.