HYDERABAD, Oct 31: The adviser to the Sindh chief minister on local bodies, kutchi abadi and spatial development, Waseem Akhtar, has proposed the appointment of DCOs as administrators of district governments before the local bodies election to restrain district governments from misusing their resources during the election.

A source in the local bodies ministry told this correspondent on Sunday that the adviser had given the proposal during a Sindh cabinet meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, in Karachi on Saturday.

The adviser said the administrators would be able to check utilization of funds during the election, scheduled to be held in 2005.

He also suggested to the prime minister that district governments should be directed to clear liabilities of contractors in the head of civil works and salaries before new district governments took over.

He said that after introduction of the devolution of power plan, defunct corporations in Sindh left liabilities of Rs694 million in heads of civil works and salaries and contractors.

The adviser also raised objections to what he described lavish spending by district governments in Sindh and said they should be asked to complete all works before June 2005 and ensure payment to contractors.

He referred to section 120 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001, which said no local government should carry any debt.

When the adviser was contacted over telephone regarding the proposal by this correspondent, he confirmed having presented it before the prime minister.

He said currently district governments were issuing contracts without considering who would clear the liabilities.

Mr Akhtar said his proposal was based on the experience of the previous local government system in which corporations had left dues of Rs694 million.

Regarding appointment of district government administrators, he observed that the administrators would maintain check and balance over the district governments to avoid misuse of resources.

He said it was up to Centre to take the decision about the appointment of the administrators.

He said the City District Government Karachi was regularizing kutchi abadis now while it had not taken any decision in this respect during the last three years. He termed it making political scores to take advantage of it in the next election.

He said payment of contracts should be cleared before June 2005 and new contracts should only be awarded after considering the fact that the payment would have to be made before June.