Govt offloads projects from development budget
Projects had become a tool for foreign trips, vehicles and double salaries.
ISLAMABAD:
The government appears serious about managing its development funds, and has started trimming non-development expenditures from the scarce pool.
The federal government has decided to take out 80 projects worth Rs45 billion from the development programme, after realising that the projects, initiated in the name of ‘capacity building’ of officials, have become tools for foreign trips, acquiring vehicles and receiving double salaries – one from the ministry and the other from the project.
The decision, taken after a thorough review of all capacity building projects by the Planning Commission (PC), will free up to Rs24 billion in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), enabling the government to use scarce resources for more productive projects.
Most of these projects were initiated in 2005-06, and were funded by borrowing money from international lenders, sources said. The total cost of these projects is Rs45 billion, of which Rs18.5 billion has so far been spent. The government would save Rs4.5 billion in a single year, sources added.
At present, 1,271 projects worth over Rs3 trillion are funded from the PSDP – of that amount, 22% is the administrative cost of the projects, according to a PC study.
PC Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haque confirmed to The Express Tribune that the commission has decided to offload all capacity building and monitoring and evaluation projects from the PSDP.
The commission has directed relevant ministries to finish some of these projects by mid-2012 and the remaining by December, he said.
“From the next financial year, no capacity-building and monitoring project will be financed from the PSDP”, Haque said.
The PC has asked ministries that expenses incurred on recruitments and vehicles cannot be treated as development expenses. If the ministries desire to build capacity of their officials, the projects should be financed out of non-development budgets, the commission has said.
The most glaring examples of misuse of public funds come from the ministries tasked to ensure transparent use of taxpayers’ money – the ministries of finance and planning.
Sources said the PC would also rationalise its own capacity-building projects, currently over a dozen, and has asked the finance ministry to trim its own projects.
The PC has also directed the finance ministry to evaluate the performance of two of its projects – the tax administration reforms project worth Rs13 billion and the project for improvement of reporting and auditing worth Rs9.6 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2012.
The government appears serious about managing its development funds, and has started trimming non-development expenditures from the scarce pool.
The federal government has decided to take out 80 projects worth Rs45 billion from the development programme, after realising that the projects, initiated in the name of ‘capacity building’ of officials, have become tools for foreign trips, acquiring vehicles and receiving double salaries – one from the ministry and the other from the project.
The decision, taken after a thorough review of all capacity building projects by the Planning Commission (PC), will free up to Rs24 billion in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), enabling the government to use scarce resources for more productive projects.
Most of these projects were initiated in 2005-06, and were funded by borrowing money from international lenders, sources said. The total cost of these projects is Rs45 billion, of which Rs18.5 billion has so far been spent. The government would save Rs4.5 billion in a single year, sources added.
At present, 1,271 projects worth over Rs3 trillion are funded from the PSDP – of that amount, 22% is the administrative cost of the projects, according to a PC study.
PC Chairman Dr Nadeemul Haque confirmed to The Express Tribune that the commission has decided to offload all capacity building and monitoring and evaluation projects from the PSDP.
The commission has directed relevant ministries to finish some of these projects by mid-2012 and the remaining by December, he said.
“From the next financial year, no capacity-building and monitoring project will be financed from the PSDP”, Haque said.
The PC has asked ministries that expenses incurred on recruitments and vehicles cannot be treated as development expenses. If the ministries desire to build capacity of their officials, the projects should be financed out of non-development budgets, the commission has said.
The most glaring examples of misuse of public funds come from the ministries tasked to ensure transparent use of taxpayers’ money – the ministries of finance and planning.
Sources said the PC would also rationalise its own capacity-building projects, currently over a dozen, and has asked the finance ministry to trim its own projects.
The PC has also directed the finance ministry to evaluate the performance of two of its projects – the tax administration reforms project worth Rs13 billion and the project for improvement of reporting and auditing worth Rs9.6 billion.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 7th, 2012.