PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) government has failed to utilise the Annual Development Budget (ADB) allocated for merged districts of the fiscal year of 2019-20, documents available with Pakistan Today have revealed.
The documents point out that at least 14 departments remained lax and negligent in their jobs as not a single penny meant for development works of seven tribal districts in the province was utilised whereas the rest of the departments have spent only six and a half per cent of the ADB since July 2019.
The aforementioned 14 departments include Excise and Taxation (E&T), Food, Industry and Commodities, Information, Labour, Law and Justice, Minerals, Welfare, Science and Technology and Transport.
There is no development work in conflict challenged areas since integration into KP even though the provincial government had extended all its departments to merged districts. It seems that most government offices are focusing solely on staff salaries rather than carrying and launching development projects reflected in the budget.
According to officials of the Finance Ministry, a certain portion of the budget was released for all departments and more will be issued on the utilisation of the current budget. They said that, for the first time in history, the KP government presented a budget of Rs83 billion for development work in tribal districts, out of which Rs72 billion had been promised by the federal government while the remaining Rs11 billion came from the KP government itself.
Experts believe that incompetence and incapability of the concerned government officials, as well as lack of facilities such as offices in these areas, are the main reasons for non-utilisation of funds.
Responding to a question regarding this belief, Chief Minister’s (CM) Advisor for Tribal Districts Ajmal Wazir said that the first six months of the current FY were spent on activation and streamlining government departments, however, now things are on track.
“We will carry out development work in tribal districts at a high pace now,” he added.
Similarly, Finance Minister Timur Saleem Jhagra also gave assurances saying that both the premier and CM are focused on uplifting tribal districts.
“In 10 years, more than Rs1,200 billion will be spent in tribal districts, enhancing the living standard of people living there,” he promised.
