MULTAN, Aug 8: The Multan Industrial Estate’s board of management has made the unprecedented 89 per cent more expenses than the approved amount for the Non-Capital Expenses (NCE) budget for 2005-06.

Sources in the BoM told Dawn that an amount of Rs5,304,000 was proposed for the NCE by the budget sub-committee of the BoM for the last fiscal which was later approved by the board’s office committee. However, the expense statement of the BoM reveals that at the end of the fiscal the NCE touched Rs10,019,207 in expenditure.

The approved outlays and the amounts spent are following: Utilities (Rs1,982,000) and (Rs3,233,862), advertisement (Rs100,000) and (Rs533,188), entertainment (Rs116,000) and (Rs559,347), printing and stationery (Rs148,000) and (Rs303,584), travelling (Rs60,000) and (Rs102,150), audit (Rs45,000) and (Rs256,212), security (Rs120,000) and (Rs286,000), training (Rs15,000) and (Rs67,057), legal and professional charges (Rs325,000) and (Rs336,708), repair & maintenance (Rs189,000) and (Rs211,900), POL (Rs54,000) and (Rs192,219), and Salary & wages (Rs1,500,000) and (Rs1,929,342).

The MIE’s BoM, however, showed austerity in the budget allocated under the head of newspapers and books as only Rs677 were used out of Rs3,000 on newspapers and Rs4,469 out of Rs15,000 earmarked for books.

The Non-Capital Income (NCI) statement of the BoM shows an amount of Rs13,130,005 during the 2005-06 fiscal as against the estimated amount of Rs7,250,000, showing an ‘outstanding’ increase of 81 per cent more than the expectations.

However, the receipts from capital account amounting to Rs3,449,490 and right of way income of Rs2,529,000 are surprisingly accounted for in the NCI. These two sources of income together make a sum of Rs5,978,490, which if subtracted, render the actual NCI to Rs7,151,515 against the NCE of Rs10,019,207.

Khwaja Muhammad Shoaib, the convener of the sub-committee that had prepared budget for the BoM, said it was decided that the evaluation of the board’s expense statement would be carried out on a monthly basis in order to keep the expenditure within the sanctioned amount, but the office staff declined to show the books every time it was asked to do so.

He said when he wrote a letter to the provincial authorities concerned to take stock of the situation, the BoM president dissolved all the board committees in March last including the budget sub-committee while no-one paid heed to the requests for transparency in accounts.

When contacted, the BoM president declined to answer several queries. However, to a question of shifting an amount of Rs3.449 million from the capital account to the non-capital income, he justified the transaction saying it was the mark-up accumulated on the capital assets.