PESHAWAR: NWFP unlikely to meet funds utilization target
By Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, April 6: The NWFP government's strategy to utilize an all-time high ADP allocation of Rs14.69 billion is likely to end up in vain because of a slow execution of projects, official sources said.
Out of Rs6 billion released for executing schemes under the locally funded component of the ADP, an amount of slightly over Rs2.1 billion was spent in the first eight months of the current fiscal.
The funds utilized under this component make 24 per cent of the total annual allocation of Rs9.3 billion. The government is now required to utilize over Rs7 billion of this component in the remaining four months of the current fiscal year.
Knowledgeable sources said though spending spree picked up during the last quarter of every financial year, it was unlikely that the project implementation agencies would be able to utilize as high an amount as Rs7 billion in the four months. They said the government departments were incapable of ensuring a timely and speedy utilization of development funds.
Sources said the primary education sector and higher education sector each had utilized 9pc of the funds, allocated to them separately. The health sector recorded the highest amount of development expenditure by spending over Rs410 million or 60pc of the funds allocated to it under the locally funded component of the ADP.
The Rs2.1 billion spent so far, added the sources, did not include the development funds utilized under the Tameer-i-Sarhad Programme and the information technology sector.
Even if the development expenditure incurred under the TSP - which is meant to support development schemes identified by the MPAs - and the IT sector was counted the net utilization of ADP funds would not improve much.
The low utilization of funds, the sources said, had left the government in a difficult situation in front of the World Bank which is funding the NWFP's multi-sector provincial reforms programme.
