13 January 2004	Tuesday	20 Ziqa'ad 1424

PESHAWAR, Jan 12: The foreign-funded multiple indicator cluster survey, which is used as a baseline to distribute resources among the district governments under the provincial finance commission award , has evoked sharp criticism from the district governments.

According to official sources, several district governments have raised objections to the multiple indicator cluster survey (MICS), carried out in 2001 with the financial assistance of Unicef, and now the provincial government is planning to conduct a fresh survey to determine the financial needs of the district governments.

"The district governments have expressed reservations about findings of the multiple indicator cluster survey. Hence, the provincial finance commission has been requested that if it wants to conduct a fresh survey to determine exact needs and financial requirements of districts the move could be facilitated," said a senior finance manager of the province.

The officer said that a recent meeting of the district Nazims was told that the provincial government was ready to conduct a fresh survey to remove the objections raised by the district governments regarding the MICS.

The sources said that the issue came under discussion at the meeting during which some of the district Nazims objected to the credibility of the MICS. On the initiation of the previous government, Unicef had helped the province in conducting MICS - a modern and internationally accepted sampling survey which provides a full-scale portrait of an area, giving a clear picture of its vital indicators in a limited period of time and at a cost much less than other modes of surveys to compile data for development purposes.

A total of 13,076 household were covered under the MICS, which included over 870 survey sites including over 220 urban and 650 rural sites across the 24 districts of the NWFP.

The sources said if the PFC waned to redetermine the development needs and expenditure requirements of districts by holding a fresh survey then the provincial government would provide funds for the purpose from the decentralization support programme.

The district governments, according to the sources, have taken the plea that the results derived from the multiple indicator cluster survey were in sharp contrast to the ground realities in several of the districts.

However, officers of the planning and development department, when contacted, rejected the district governments' stand and said the survey helped the province in determining the actual state of affairs at the grass roots level and planning its future strategies to eradicate poverty and improve social sector services across the province.

Under the provincial finance commission (PFC) award, resources are distributed among the district governments from the provincial divisible pool on the basis of population, infrastructure needs and backwardness - which was last determined under the multiple indicator cluster survey.

Fifty per cent of the divisible pool resources are distributed among district governments on the basis of population and 25 per cent each on the basis of infrastructure needs and backwardness.