Boosting election prospects?: Ministers push commission for scarce funds

Projects for minister’s constituencies likely to be considered in upcoming meeting.

ISLAMABAD:

As elections draw closer, all-out efforts to woo potential voters in key federal ministers’ constituencies are in full swing – with the use of taxpayers’ money.

The government is likely to call a meeting soon which is ostensibly for the purpose of approving a polio immunisation project worth Rs27 billion, but is actually aimed at considering half a dozen development projects worth billions of rupees for several ministers’ constituencies. No date, however, has been set for the meeting yet.

Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf set the precedent for this after diverting a huge amount of funds for his hometown, and now three cabinet members have decided to follow suit. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for Capital Administration and Development Division Nazar Gondal, and Minister for Kashmir Affairs Mian Manzoor Wattoo are pressuring the Planning Commission (PC) to approve their projects as well, according to sources.

It has been proposed that some of these projects should be financed out of this year’s Public Sector Development Programme, which in turn will adversely affect other ongoing schemes. The sources added that the commission could no longer resist the pressure and would clear the schemes in the meeting of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) – the body empowered to scrutinise and approve development projects.

Earlier, the CWDP, headed by PC Deputy Chairperson Dr Nadeemul Haque, had returned Wattoo and Gondal’s projects after finding serious flaws in the plan while the agency sponsoring Kaira’s project withdrew its scheme from the meeting agenda itself.

The PC spokesperson, however, confirmed that Gondal has resubmitted his projects. He said the CDWP had directed that the projects of Wattoo and Gondal be resubmitted after addressing the flaws highlighted in October 5 meeting. Sources said Kaira is also likely to resubmit his project, although no details on the project are available since it was withdrawn by the sponsoring agency.

For the current fiscal year, the government has set a Rs360 billion budget under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) to carry on work on 1,044 projects. The total cost of these schemes is actually Rs1.8 trillion, but due to a scarcity of resources the government could not spare more than Rs360 billion. According to the PC, with its current budget, it will take at least 6 to 8 years to complete the ongoing projects even if no new scheme is initiated. It has been proposed that two of Gondal’s schemes be financed out of this year’s PSDP budget, despite not being part of the original programme.

The three projects proposed by Gondal in his constituency involve road construction and the renovation of a railway bridge, and have now been submitted to the PC for approval. They are worth a whopping Rs535.5 million. Wattoo’s projects are to cost Rs7.4 billion. Documents available with The Express Tribune say the “PC-1s (of all these schemes) were sketchy and lacked basic data regarding vehicular traffic, existing condition of the roads, pavement design, proper alignment of roads and the basis of cost estimates”.

A comment in the official document also pointed out some discrepancies with regard to stated costs: “The unit costs of each of the roads with similar scope were not matching each other. They were ranging between Rs8.53 million per kilometre to Rs34 million per kilometre, which seemed to be on the higher side”.

Despite repeated attempts to contact him, the information minister was not available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2012.