Local governments
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through Finance Department has released Rs7.20 billion development funds to the local government institutions in the province for the second quarter (October-December) of the current financial year (2016-17).
The Finance Department had also released a similar amount of the development funds to the local government institutions including districts governments, Tehsil and Town Municipal Administrations (TMAs), Village Councils (VCs) and Neighbourhood Councils (NCs) in the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The provincial government has committed to provide Rs33.90 billion to the local governments during the current financial year, which is comes to 30 percent of the total annual development programme (ADP).
The documents available with The News indicate that with the release of second tranche of Rs7.20 billion, the provincial government releases to the local government tiers during the current fiscal for the quarters of the current financial year have come to Rs14.41 billion.
During the previous fiscal the provincial government had committed Rs42.10 billion to the local governments which also included Rs11.82 billion for the ongoing schemes in 25 districts across the province.
However, the provincial government could only release Rs26.95 billion during the last financial year (2015-16) to the local governments including districts, TMAs, VCs and NCs.The documents show that the provincial government has provided Rs29.54 billion of the development funds to the local government in the four quarters of the last and current financial years.
The Finance Department after getting feedback on the utilization of the uplift funds by the local governments released Rs2.21 billion to 25 districts, Rs2.21billoin to the TMAs and Rs 2.78 billion to the 3501 VCs and NCs on December 14 in the province.
The three tiers of the local governance in the first quarter (July-September) of the current financial year in total had received Rs7.20 billion uplift funds that include Rs2.21billion each released to district governments and TMAs and Rs2.783 billion to the VCs and NCs.
The district government Peshawar has received Rs210 million, while its four towns have received another Rs210 million. The Town-I Rs55.292 million, Town-II Rs57.869 million, Town-III Rs49.881 million and Town-IV received Rs47.035 million for development in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
Sources in the Finance Department on Thursday confided that the Local Government Elections and Rural Development Department (LGE&RDD) had submitted its case for the release of Rs7.20 billion to the three tier of governance in October.
It also time and again took up the matter with the Finance Department but each time, the sources added, the department refused to release the amount on the pretext that the district governments and other tiers could not furnish details of utilization of the first quart (July-September) of the current fiscal.
However, the sources said the release of funds in the mid of December suggested that the Finance Department and Planning and Development Department (P&D) will now show the funds it released on December 14 as utilized funds in the provincial Mid-Year Review of funds utilization in an apparent bid to offset and minimize the effects of low utilization of uplift funds.