KARACHI: Utilization of MNA fund in more sectors allowed
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Oct 15: The scope of the utilization of MNAs funds, Rs10 million for each, has been extended to other sectors — education, health, water supply, sanitation and bulldozer-hiring.
The MNAs have been allowed to cover the above-mentioned fields by proposing relevant schemes but would have to submit, before execution of the schemes, an undertaking with the provincial or concerned district government that they would maintain the schemes at their own expense after completion.
The allocation to the MNAs had been made under Tameer-i-Pakistan Programme (TPP). During the previous financial year, Rs5 million has been released to the MNAs for their schemes pertaining to electricity, gas, roads and telephone.
In the current year, the finance ministry has provided Rs3,420 million as against Rs1,710 million in 2002-03 in respect of the TPP schemes.
The TPP framework excludes expenditure incurred on purchase of equipment, vehicles, furniture & fixture, salaries, printing of diaries and calendars, holding of official meetings in hotels, dinners, etc.
However, it was left up to the MNAs to associate provincial/ concerned district government to get their schemes processed and executed.
Recommendations from MNAs are forwarded for further processing in consultation with the provincial/district agencies.
However, in order to institutionalize further coordination in such cases, the federal government has asked the chief secretaries to designate a provincial focal point for the processing of TPP schemes and also issue appropriate instructions to all the concerned to ensure expeditious processing for administrative approval through the respective provincial government/District Development Committees as per their normal departmental procedures within a period of 20 days.
Under the TPP rules, “an equivalent amount shall be made available in the following fiscal to complete the scheme as per its approved scope and cost.”
In order to ensure speedy finalization and smooth implementation of the schemes, the Federal Development Committee (FDC) has been constituted in the ministry of local government & rural development, comprising representatives of finance, planning and development, prime minister’s secretariat and other ministries/executing departments concerned.
The committee is to hold its meeting once a week, or as often as it deems appropriate, for discharging its functions. It will make sure that the schemes identified by the MNAs fall within the purview of the TPP and remain within the member’s authorized budget.
The land required for the schemes (wherever applicable) will be provided free of cost and would not form part of the cost estimates of the scheme. In case private land is offered by an MNA, its mutation will be effected before execution of scheme.
The ministry of local government and rural development will release funds to the concerned ministry/department within seven days of the receipt of the approved scheme for implementation.
A monitoring report, conveying the progress of work on the schemes, will be furnished by the executing department to the ministry each month, followed by a consolidated report on the completion of each scheme.
