In 2014-15, utilisation of development funds remains abysmally low

Karachi
The oft-repeated excuse of the paucity of funds by ministers and officials fell null and void on Wednesday when the chief minister was presented a detailed account of the expenditure of various departments of the provincial government on uplift schemes.
The lack of utilisation of development funds, rather than their scarcity, was what incurred the wrath of Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah when he was briefed on how much of the allocated funds were used by government departments during the current financial year.
None of the government departments used more than 50 percent of the funds allocated for development. The highest expenditure in this regard was of the works and service department which used 51 percent of the development funds. On the other hand, the lowest utilisation was reported from the mines and minerals department which only used four percent of the funds earmarked for development schemes.
According to the additional chief secretary of development, Mohammad Waseem, who provided details of expenditures of various departments, the Sindh government for the financial year 2014-2015 (which is about end in June) earmarked a total of Rs168 billion for 2937 development schemes.
The sum of Rs168 billion for annual development schemes included Rs143 billion for the schemes being implemented by the Sindh government while Rs25 billion were earmarked for projects being carried out by district administrations.
“Out of the total 2937 development schemes, 1658 were ongoing while 1279 were new projects,” said Waseem. “A total of Rs90.1 billion were earmarked for the ongoing schemes while Rs52.9 billion were allocated for new projects.”
Elaborating on the overall financial outlay, Waseem said the largest share, 34 percent of the total development budget was reserved for medium and small development schemes. Meanwhile, he said,
15 percent of the budget was reserved for local government, 14 for energy, nine for health, eight for education, seven for special initiatives, seven for roads’ construction and six percent was earmarked for irrigation purposes.
Giving details of the expenditure of specific departments, Waseem said the Auqaf, Zakat and Religious Affairs Department used only 20 percent of its development budget.
“A sum of more than Rs266 million was allocated for related uplifts schemes out of which Rs161.5 million was released till April 4. However, even out of the total funds released, only Rs32.7 million were spent on development schemes.”
Moving on to health, he said the department had at its disposal Rs13.2 billion to spend on development schemes, out of which Rs7.2 billion were released while only Rs2.7 billion were utilised. “This means the department only used 39 percent of the development funds available at its disposal.”
Next was the industries department which used around 46 percent of the available funds. “A total of Rs125.5 million had been reserved for the uplift schemes being carried out by the department aganst which Rs38.5 million were released till April 4,” said Waseem. “Out of them, Rs17.8 million were used.”
A sum of Rs103.7 was allocated for development projects of the labour department out of which the finance department had released Rs9.4 million. However, the department used only Rs1.5 million of the available funds, which means that only 16 percent of the total funds were utilised.
Talking about the livestock and fisheries department, Waseem said their allocation amounted to Rs2,070 million against which Rs599 million were released. “However, the department utilised only Rs111.7 million, 19 percent of the available funds.
After hearing this, the chief minister asked Waseem if he had taken up the issue with the relevant department. The additional chief secretary replied that he had sent a number of letters.
Moreover, he continued, Rs279.4 million were allocated for development schemes of the mines and minerals department out of which Rs85.6 were released while only Rs3.4 million, a paltry four percent, were used.
Moving on, the population welfare department used 12 percent of the available development funds. “The department had Rs1760 at its disposal out of which it used only Rs91 million,” said Waseem.
“Meanwhile, the transport department had a allocation of Rs3,216 out of which around Rs72 million were released. But the department only utilised only Rs7.6 of the funds released, using only 11 percent of the amount available to them.”
After hearing this the chief minister too couldn’t help saying that there were a number of transport-related issued in the province and the department, despite having initiated several schemes, hadn’t performed well.
Similarly, the works and services department used 31 percent of the development funds. A sum of Rs313 million had been allocated out of which Rs94 million were released while Rs29.3 million were used.
The highest utilisation was development funds was by the works and services department which used 51 percent of the earmarked funds. “Out of the Rs9,744.5 million allocated, Rs9,594 million were released while Rs4,915 million were used,” said Waseem.
The chief minister decided to chair a joint meeting of the finance, and, planning and development departments to ask the officials the reason for the poor utilisation of allocated development funds.
The meeting held on Wednesday was also attended by development secretary Rehana Memon, secretary planning and development Dr Shireen Narejo, chief economist Abdul Fatah Marri and other high officials of the planning and development department.