Budgetary allocations: Gilgit-Balitstan govt facing delays in release of funds

Finance minister says G-B govt wants funds given in two installments.

ISLAMABAD:

The Gilgit-Balitstan (G-B) government is facing difficulties due to delays in release of its budgetary allocations from the federal government.

The G-B government wants development and non-development funds given in two equal installments for the whole financial year whereas the centre is releasing these on a quarterly basis, said G-B Finance Minister Mohammad Ali Akhter while talking to The Express Tribune on Sunday.



He said that the recent financial crisis in G-B has been overcome for the time being after receiving the second and third quarterly releases of the development and non-development funds, respectively.



The federal government has released Rs1.35 billion for development and Rs2.75 billion for non-development funds. However, G-B has not received the grant of Rs2 billion announced by Prime Minister Pervaiz Asharaf during his visit to Gilgit, he said. Any delay in provision of funds means that the local government has no cash to pay its employees, meet day to day expenses, pay bills, and the development projects come to a halt.

“If the funds are not released in two installments as we demand, the problem will persist in future too,” Akhter said.

He said that after giving provincial status to G-B, the centre now transfers funds to G-B accounts through the State Bank after approval from the federal finance ministry.

Previously, funds were given to the ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan and it directly transferred the sum to G-B administration without any delay, he elaborated.

Akhter said that the G-B government was aware of issues faced by the contractors due to non-release of their bills.

“The contractors have performed rehabilitation works after the natural disasters in 2010 and 2011 and their bills are pending and will be released after receiving the amount from prime minister’s special grant.”

Mismanagement

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz G-B chapter president and former provincial minister Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman said the current fiscal crisis was the local government’s doing.

During the last two years, the centre has given the G-B government the authority to re-appropriate the funds, Rehman said. Due to this authority, the provincial authorities divert funds from development to non-development heads resulting in financial crisis.

In the past, the ratio of development and non-development funds was 70/30, respectively, but now the non-development expenditures have been increased manifold. Rehman said that the PPP government in G-B has created unnecessary posts in various departments since assuming the charge and recruited PPP workers, which is an all-time high burden on the budget.

According to him, in 2009, the non-development budget of G-B was Rs4.5 billion which has now crossed Rs12 billion mark, whereas the total budget of G-B is Rs19 billion inclusive of Rs3 billion allocation for the federal PSDP projects.

He alleged that Rs570 million were spent from the development funds on the political advertisement in the media and an equal amount was spent on the visits of chief minister, governor and ministers to the anniversaries of Bhutto family in Naudero at different times.

“These political functionaries receive invitations for these private functions from the President House aiming at giving them official status for using government resources,” said Hafiz.

The G-B finance minister maintained that being an autonomous provincial government, “we can allocate our resources as per our needs.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2013.