Grant for district govts being used as discretionary fund
By Intikhab Amir
PESHAWAR, Feb 3: Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani continued to use the district government grant as his discretionary fund during the current fiscal year.
The NWFP government has used a considerable amount of money from the district development fund to carry out uplift work on the instructions of Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani during the first half of the current financial year.
But due to this move, the government could not fulfil commitments made with a foreign donor agency. According to official sources, over Rs33 million has been released from the district fund in accordance with 41 instructions issued by the chief minister during his official visits to different districts in the province.
The district development fund was meant to distribute among district governments to fulfil recommendations of the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award. The government spent some amount on small development works in 12 districts while part of the released fund went to religious seminaries, schools and, bar councils as special grants.
Senior government officials see the use of the funds against the provincial government's commitment with the World Bank which is financing the NWFP's multi-sectoral reforms programme under its structural adjustment credit (SAC).
"The commitment has hardly been cared for as more schemes are being implemented from the districts' fund on the chief minister's instructions," said a senior high official.
The World Bank, which has so far released $180 million to the province to implement SAC-I and SAC-II, requires the provincial government to discourage schemes based on the chief minister's instructions.
The province has yet to qualify for the third instalment to implement SAC-III. Official sources said the World Bank wanted that the provincial government should discontinue this practice.
Since the introduction of the new Local Government System in the country in August 2001, the NWFP has been specifying Rs963.393 million annually for the district governments' annual development programmes.
The amount, specified each fiscal year since 2001-02 to fulfil the recommendations of the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award, is distributed among the 24 districts of the province on the basis of a special formula devised under the PFC.
Out of the total amount distributed among the 24 districts every year, Rs96.339 million (10 per cent of the total amount), was set aside in 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04, to carry out development works on the special directives, first by the NWFP governor (in 2001-02) and then by the chief minister (in 2002-03 and 2003-04).
The donor agency, said senior government functionaries, during negotiations with the provincial government for the release of second instalment of $90 million to implement SAC-II, had pressed the province to ensure greater transparency giving up the practice of implementing development works on the special instructions of the chief minister or any other senior member of the government.
The province was asked to stop non-ADP schemes. Though the provincial government, said the sources, had not carried out non-ADP schemes from its own financial resources, part of the district development fund had once again been used for the same purpose.
The provincial government is required to distribute Rs963.393 million among the 24 districts of the province. Of the total amount, Rs606 million would be distributed directly among the district governments to help them plan and execute district-specific development schemes.
Whereas Rs260 million would be distributed by the provincial government directly among tehsil and town administrations. According to official data available with Dawn, of the Rs33 million released to fulfil chief minister's instructions, Rs15 million has gone to Bannu- the home district of the chief minister.
And remaining Rs18 million has gone to 11 districts, Hangu, Charsadda, Mansehra, DI Khan, Lakki Marwat, Peshawar, Swat, Tank, Malakand, Karak, Dir (Lower) and Kohistan.
