Govt contractors want bills for completed projects cleared

PESHAWAR: A number of contractors who have spent millions of rupees on different government projects are yet to be paid their dues pending for months due to unavailability of funds.

Several contractors in Peshawar and other districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said they had spent millions on projects initiated by different government departments in the last several months.

However, despite spending huge amounts they were yet to get paid as the relevant departments say they were yet to receive funds from the government.

These projects were either completed or about to be completed in different sectors under the supervision of various departments, including Pakhtunkhwa Energy Development Organisation, Local Government, Communication and Works, tehsil and city administrations, education, irrigation, district administration and many others. Some of these contractors in a letter to the additional chief secretary said that they had spent over Rs 280 million on the solarization of schools in merged districts. However, their dues were yet to be cleared

Several other contractors said their bills were pending approval and payment with different district and tehsil administrations and other departments.

A government official, however, said huge funds had been released to different departments to clear the pending bills and hoped that would improve the situation.