Earthquake 2005: Funding shortage stalls rebuilding projects

Rehabilitation and reconstruction projects have been badly affected and will not be completed till 2011.

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (Perra) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will not be able to complete its reconstruction projects in the areas hit by the 2005 earthquake till June 2011 as planned, since the federal government has failed to release the necessary funds, sources said.

The government had promised Rs50 billion for these projects to be released in installments by June 2011. “The government has paid less than Rs2 billion out of Rs9 billion to the authority this year,” a source told The Express Tribune. Education and health sectors have been badly affected due to shortage of funds.

Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti has written to the prime minister in this regard, but the government failed to convene a meeting of the Erra council to solve this problem. According to rules and regulations, the government is not entitled to use earthquake funds for any other projects but all such rules have allegedly been flouted.

To be able to finish all reconstruction and rehabilitation projects till June 2011, the government had established Perra in the first year following the earthquake, tenders had been floated during the second year and work started in the third year. The government had reserved Rs50 billion for the projects, to be utilised till June 2011.

Up to Rs15 billion was spent in 2008, Rs9 billion in 2009, while the authority demanded Rs25 billion for 2010 which was not sanctioned by the government. The demand proposal was sent back for reconsideration.

The authority then requested Rs9 billion but the government released only Rs1.7 billion, which was not sufficient to even pay rest of the balance of the contractors.  Due to non-availability of funds, some 1,200 schools and health facility centres could not be constructed this year. The number of District Reconstruction Bureaus (DRU) has come down to three from six and 60 per cent of the staff has been fired in the affected areas, hampering development work in those districts.

Perra has completed 58 per cent of the work and for the remaining 42 per cent it needs Rs23 billion. The performance of the provincial government can be judged from the example of a hospital constructed in Mansehra for Rs580 million which is still not fully functional.

A senior Perra official said that the prime minister had said in the National Assembly that Rs12 billion will be released to Erra, of which Rs5 billion will be given to K-P. Therefore, the provincial government must lobby the federal government for releasing this amount.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27^th, 2010.