Sport festival 2012: Publicity campaign cost Rs51.5m
Finance Dept releases funds to Punjab Sports Board as a supplementary grant.
LAHORE:
The Punjab Sports Board spent Rs51.5 million on the Punjab Sports Festival 2012 publicity campaign, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The festival kicked off on January 23 and continued for 50 days.
An official of the Sports Department, who requested anonymity, said that the amount had been provided as supplementary grant to the Punjab Sports Board. The Finance Department recently released the amount to the board, he said.
The Punjab Sports Broad Director General Usman Anwar, in a press briefing on Tuesday, had claimed that that the expenses of the festival had been borne by sponsors.
After the last budget, the Punjab government had issued an austerity policy for 2011-12 in which a ban had been imposed on foreign tours, purchase of new vehicles, machinery, furniture and fixtures. The government had also directed administrative departments to minimise spending on publicity campaigns. It had been suggested that “unnecessary advertisement” be avoided and a check be kept on the size and frequency of essential advertisements. The departments had been told to get the chief minister’s approval in case they wanted a supplementary grant exceeding Rs3 million, which the Sports Department did.
Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, the Punjab government’s spokesperson, said that the amount had been used to make the youth aware about opportunities in sports. “It was used for the promotion of sports in the province where playgrounds had become barren. It is not as if it was used for the publicity of any leader,” Rasheed added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2012.
The Punjab Sports Board spent Rs51.5 million on the Punjab Sports Festival 2012 publicity campaign, The Express Tribune has learnt.
The festival kicked off on January 23 and continued for 50 days.
An official of the Sports Department, who requested anonymity, said that the amount had been provided as supplementary grant to the Punjab Sports Board. The Finance Department recently released the amount to the board, he said.
The Punjab Sports Broad Director General Usman Anwar, in a press briefing on Tuesday, had claimed that that the expenses of the festival had been borne by sponsors.
After the last budget, the Punjab government had issued an austerity policy for 2011-12 in which a ban had been imposed on foreign tours, purchase of new vehicles, machinery, furniture and fixtures. The government had also directed administrative departments to minimise spending on publicity campaigns. It had been suggested that “unnecessary advertisement” be avoided and a check be kept on the size and frequency of essential advertisements. The departments had been told to get the chief minister’s approval in case they wanted a supplementary grant exceeding Rs3 million, which the Sports Department did.
Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, the Punjab government’s spokesperson, said that the amount had been used to make the youth aware about opportunities in sports. “It was used for the promotion of sports in the province where playgrounds had become barren. It is not as if it was used for the publicity of any leader,” Rasheed added.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 17th, 2012.