KP utilises only 13pc of uplift funds so far

24 districts fail to utilize any money in first 2 quarters

PESHAWAR: The development machinery in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has utilised only 13 percent of the development funds, while 24 of its 26 districts failed to utilise a single penny of their uplift funds in the first two quarters of the current fiscal.

The document shared with The News shows that the low utilisation of development funds is likely to slacken the uplift process in the province in general and the districts in particular.It shows that the provincial development, planning and financial machinery has so far utilised only 13 percent of the total development funds for the current financial year 2015-16.

However, in the current expenditure the province has spent 32 percent of the allocations during the first six months of the fiscal.The document, which is also part of the Mid-Year Review of the provincial government that concluded on December 31, 2015, shows that the provincial government allocated Rs145 billion as Annual Development Programme (ADP) for the financial year 2015-16 and released Rs64 billion of which only Rs19 billion were utilised in the first two quarters (July1 to December 31) of the current fiscal. This amounts to 13 percent only of the total development expenditure.

According to the document, the development outlay of Rs145 billion also includes the province’s own ADP of Rs112 billion of which Rs59 billion was released over the two quarters of the fiscal. However, the actual expenditure remained Rs18 billion, which is just 18 percent of the province’s ADP allocation.

The utilisation of the Foreign Projects Assistance (FPA) is even less as the provincial government could utilise only 3 percent of the funds during the first two quarters of the financial year.

The provincial government received Rs33 billion of which Rs5 billion has been released over the first six months of the fiscal, but actual expenditure of the FPA funds during the period stood at Rs1 billion. This formed only 3 percent of the total FPA allocations.

The document draws an even more dismal picture of the districts when it comes to the funds utilisation during the current fiscal.It says as Section 53 (a) of the Local Government Act (LGA) 2013 envisages development grant for local governments not less than 30 percent of the total development budget of the province, the provincial government allocated around Rs42 billion to district ADP. It allocated Rs11.75 billion for the ongoing devolved projects and another Rs30.27 billion including Rs13.10 billion for village councils and neighbourhood councils, Rs8.58 billion for tehsils and Rs8.58 billion for the districts in the current fiscal.

The provincial government has released Rs15 billion of Rs30 billion district ADP, but all the 24 districts where election has been held for the district, village, tehsil and neighbourhood councils, couldn’t utilise a single penny of their development budget.

The government released Rs4 billion of the Rs8.58 billion to the district councils for development schemes, but their utilisation during the first two quarters of the current fiscal remained only one percent. Their real expenditure as an official of the Planning and Development (P&D) Department explained was zero.

The case with the utilisation of development funds by the Town/Tehsil Municipal Committees (TMAs) that were allocated Rs9 billion is the same.The government released Rs4 billion of the development allocations, but utilisation of the uplift funds by these bodies also remained zero percent.

Similarly, the government released Rs7 billion of Rs13 billion development allocations to the village and neighbourhood councils, which failed to spend a single penny of their development funds during the first six months of the current financial year.

According to the document, even the current expenditure of the provincial government remained unsatisfactory. The provincial government has an allocation of Rs313 billion for its current expenditure and it has released Rs179 in the first two quarters.

However, it spent Rs99 billion during the first two quarters that is 32 percent of the current expenditure.In total as the document shows Rs258 billion of the total budget outlay of Rs488 billion, both current and development, has been released during the first six months of the fiscal 2015-16, but Rs118 billion only has been utilized, amounting to 24 percent of the total allocations.