PESHAWAR, Nov 30: District governments in the NWFP have, during the first three months of the current fiscal year, utilized less than one per cent of theamount allocated to them by the government for development work, official sources said.
The provincial government had earmarked a cumulative Rs606.9 million for annual development programmes of district governments in 2004-05 and released Rs71.9 million by the end of August, officials said.
Against this, the district governments utilized slightly over Rs4 million, which makes 0.69 per cent of the allocated Rs606 million and 5.8pc of the funds released to them during the first two months of the current fiscal.
"Not all of the 24 district governments," said an official "had got funds out of the Rs71.9 million released by the provincial government, because many had ample funds carried forward from the last year's account".
The sources said that the district governments had carried forward about Rs564 million, the funds they had failed to utilize during the last financial year because of slow execution of projects.
Against the funds carried forward to the current financial year's account, the districts spent about Rs124 million during the first three months of the current fiscal. The situation has left many of the district governments with huge amount of funds.
"It will require an extraordinary effort on their part to ensure 100 per cent utilization of development funds," said a planner. According to an official document, only Mansehra district had managed to spend funds against what was released to it in the current financial year.
A source said that the provincial government had asked the district governments to ensure utilization of the carried forward funds at a fast pace otherwise action would be taken against them. "They would not be given funds out of their current financial year's share unless they utilize maximum of the funds," said the source.
