KP Education dept spending Rs16.4m on aviation fuel

ISLAMABAD: While the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government is seeking public donation to improve its schools, its education ministry is spending Rs16.4 million this year on fuel charges for planes and helicopters to be used by its officials.
According to certified information provided by the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department of KP government, the total non-salary budget for education is Rs7.9 billion for the financial year 2014-15 while Rs65.7 billion are being spent on salary of the staff.
The documents provided by the department under the KP Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013 show that an amount of Rs16.4 million has been allocated as PoL charges for planes and helicopters.
Interestingly the budget for software is only Rs1000 for the entire financial year while only Rs0.3 million have been earmarked for hardware by the KP government. The information request filed by civil society activist Malik Masood sought the details of object wise Salary and non-salary budget of the E&SE Department.
“All 25 districts of KP are easily accessible by road so there is hardly any need for helicopters to commute the officials from one place to the other for official duties,” said the applicant Malik Masood who is Programme Manager at Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA).
When contacted by The News KP minister for education Mohammad Atif said he was not aware of this hefty allocation. “It could be a mistake by the department as, in my opinion, there is no need for this allocation,” he said.
But the applicant wondered how the education department could provide false information in response to a request filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013.He said the budget allocation for repair and maintenance of schools is very low while the budget for salaries is very high.
There are schools built 20 to 30 years ago that need repair but the government is not providing budget for this purpose.Keeping in view the shortage of funds, the KP government initiated “Tameer-e-School” project in April 2014 to seek public funding for schools and an amount of Rs26 million has been raised through donations.
The project is aimed at constructing new educational facilities and revamping the existing ones by raising funds.According to official documents the KP government has spent Rs33 million on publicity campaign of Tameer-e-School project so far.