KP’s Governor House spends more than CM House

ISLAMABAD: Although under the 1973 Constitution, the governor of a province is largely a ceremonial post as all the executive functions are performed by the chief minister, yet surprisingly, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Governor House is costing the national exchequer more than the Chief Minister House, certified information provided by the Governor House revealed.
According to official documents obtained by The News, total expenditure of the Governor House remained Rs115 million from August 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014 while for the same period, the total expense of KP’s CM House was only Rs22.8 million. The document also revealed that an amount of Rs5.3 million was spent by the Governor House on lunch and dinners for VVIPs.
The information was provided by the information officer of the Governor House in response to a request filed by this correspondent under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information (RTI) Act 2013.
It is pertinent to mention here that the current KP Governor Sardar Mehtab Abbasi has assumed the post on 15th April, 2014 while before him, Pakistan People’s Party’s Engineer Shaukatullah Khan was holding the post from February 2013 to April 14, 2014.
Earlier, the KP Chief Minister House had informed The News in response to a similar request that Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had spent Rs22.8 million from August 1, 2013 to August 31, 2014 including an amount of Rs2.6 million on entertainment and bakery items.
The CM House expenses also included salaries of employees and the CM House and its gas, telephone and electricity bills.On the other hand, the Governor House spent Rs115 million under various heads during the same period, the documents revealed. According to Governor House information officer, this expenditure includes salary of the Governor KP, and staff and medical, ad hoc, and integrated allowances.
To a question, the information officer said Rs5.3 million were released to the Governor House, Peshawar, which were spent on lunch and dinners for the VVIPs, delegations and visitors to different functions and ceremony but no amount was spent on procurement of bakery items.
He also informed that no gifts and presents were given by the governor during the mentioned period.
The statement of month-wise expenditure of the Governor House revealed that an amount of Rs14.7 million was spent during November 2013 which remained the highest monthly expense during the specified period while Rs12.5 million were spent during June 2014.