Govt asks ministries to submit development projects for approval

ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday directed all the ministers to expedite submission of PC-1 for more than a hundred unapproved development projects in order to get them approved from the concerned departments.

The ministry of planning, through a notice, asked all the relevant departments to prepare PC-1 for all 118 unapproved projects worth billions of rupees, included in the list of the public sector development program (PSDP) of 2016/17, and submit them till September 30.

Ministries were instructed to fulfill the procedural and legal requirements to get approval from all the relevant forums without wasting further time.

“All ministries are advised to dispatch PC-1 for all the unapproved projects till September 30 so that the process of approval from the competent forums, such as the CDWP (Central Development Working Party) and ECNEC (Executive Committee of the National Economic Council) can be obtained,” said an official at the Planning Commission.

The official said the government warned that the release of funds for any unapproved project might be blocked in case the ministries fail to meet the deadline.

The ministry of planning, the official added, also directed all the ministries to ensure the completion of all those development projects for which the entire financing requirements have been made in the PSDP. 

“The planning ministry should not tolerate that the directors of the projects, which got throw-forward amount in the existing PSDP for 2016-17, would fail to complete them by the end of the ongoing fiscal year,” said the official.

The official said there are several projects, which are run only for the continuation of the jobs for the liked ones. The project is not executed, but salaries, perks and privileges are paid without accountability. 

But, the Planning Commission’s high-ups are strict this time around and they will not bear up with any such practice during the current fiscal year. 

The official said after the deadline expiry, the funding for unapproved projects will not be released. If the project fails to complete on time there will be no allocation for the next fiscal year.    An official document showed that the CDWP received 468 PC-1s of the projects from all the ministries between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016. Of them, 125 were under appraisal on April 1. The department approved 168 projects, while ECNEC approved the remaining 62 projects. Total 297 development schemes were under consideration of the CDWP.

CDWP recommended 16 projects to the ECNEC.

Total eight projects were returned to the ministries. Total 136 projects were returned after the preliminary examination by the Planning Commission.

The ECNEC, chaired by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, approved a total of 62 development projects with a gross estimated cost of Rs 2,245 billion between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016, while CDWP cleared 168 development projects with an aggregate estimated cost of Rs200 billion during this period. In this tenure, the ECNEC held 10 and CDWP conducted 17 meetings.