PESHAWAR, Dec 28: The NWFP government has not done well in executing development schemes in the Annual Development Programme during the first half of the financial year, according to sources.
"The province is fast moving towards a situation where it would become impossible to translate the ADP into a reality," said an official. The provincial government had planned to utilize Rs16.2 billion under the ADP.
The development planners, however, admitted that the progress so far was missing the target. "The province managed to spend only nine per cent of the ADP's total size during the first three months of the current financial year," said an official.
According to the data, the provincial government had distributed Rs4.8 billion among the departments and district governments during the first three months of the current financial year. Out of which only Rs1.5 billion was utilized by the end of the first quarter of the fiscal which comes to around 9.5 per cent of the total size of the ADP.
"Development expenditure traditionally improves during the third and fourth quarters of a year because no one (among the officers and departments) takes the business seriously in the first half of the fiscal year, particularly in the July-September period," said a development planner.
The situation, maintained the officer, would improve during the second quarter, and the pace would be further accelerated during the third and the fourth quarters of the financial year - as had been the case in the past. The worst affected, it seems, are the school and literacy department and the health department which have with them large amounts of funds lying unutilized.
