16 January 2005	Sunday	05 Zilhaj 1425

PESHAWAR, Jan 15: The NWFP government has recorded improvement in its development expenditure during the second quarter of the current financial year in comparison with the first three months' expenditure position, according to official sources.

At the end of the first three months of current financial year, the province ended up with a total expenditure of about Rs1.5 billion. The expenditure recorded during the July-Sept quarter of the current fiscal year made 9.5 per cent of the total size of the current financial year's annual development programme (ADP), involving an outlay of Rs16.2 billion.

However, according to well-placed official sources, utilization of funds under the ADP recorded 'some' improvement during the second three months of the fiscal.

The provincial minister for finance, planning and development, Siraj-ul-Haq, who is also senior minister in the provincial cabinet, told Dawn that the pace of development activities in different parts of the province had accelerated as a result of which substantial improvement had been recorded in terms of funds utilization.

"Information gathered from secretaries of different departments of the provincial government revealed that at the close of the first half of the current financial year the province utilized about 30 per cent of the total size of the ADP," said the minister.

At the start of the current financial year, the provincial government, according to official sources, had distributed Rs4.9 billion among its various project executing agencies, departments, district governments and managements of various foreign-funded projects.

However, a substantial amount of funds went unspent after the province, officials said, recording total expenditure of Rs1.535 billion during the first three months of the current financial year.

The senior minister, however, said that as the development activities started picking up in various sectors during the second quarter of the fiscal year, the provincial government recorded improvement in its expenditure under the ADP.

"The situation will further improve in the third and fourth quarters," claimed the minister. Low utilization of funds, according to official sources, is one of the major irritants facing the government when it comes to explaining its position in front of its foreign donor agencies, particularly the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

Both the institutions, said official sources, had expressed their dismay in this respect during their recently held separate meetings with the authorities of the provincial government.

Official sources said the government was once again focusing on the utilization of funds provided by the World Bank for its Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) programme, a three year multi sectoral reforms programme involving three instalments of $90 million each.

The finance minister expressed the hope that expenditure on the World Bank-funded schemes would improve significantly in the months to come as the province would execute schemes in the education sector which involved heavy investment.

"Projects like distribution of free textbooks among the students of primary schools cannot be executed before March when the academic year starts, so we would be carrying out the project after a couple of months. It would further raise our expenditure under the ADP," said the minister.