September 03, 2006	Sunday	Sha'aban 9, 1427

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PESHAWAR, Sept 2: Some of the district governments have not properly handled their accounts concerning public sector employees’ pay after being shifted from the provincial government since July last, sources said.

Provincial finance managers have come to know that at least four of the 24 districts have not handled the salary account in appropriate manner requiring the provincial government to come to their rescue.

“The new system is in its early days and it was quite obvious that some of the district governments may not be able to follow the accounting procedures and may commit inadvertent mistakes,” said a finance manager of the provincial government.

The sources said that it was found — in the case of the four district governments including Charsadda district — that they did not pay salaries to employees out of the funds released to them for paying salaries.

Rather, they paid salary to the employees from funds released for taking care of expenditure under other heads like utility charges, maintenance and repair.

In a major move to devolve financial powers to the local governments, the NWFP government finally shifted the salary accounts to the district governments from the start of the current financial year.

This would require the provincial government to release funds — earmarked for paying salaries to public sector employees working in departments devolved to district level — to its account number-IV meant for the district governments.

About Rs21.5 billion would be released to district governments during the 2006-07 financial year under the salary account.

Senior officials of the Peshawar City District Government, when contacted, said that the problems being experienced in effectively dealing with the new responsibility were minor in nature.

“Had the provincial government shifted the salary account to the district governments earlier as has been done in Punjab and Sindh, things would have been quite smooth,” said a senior officer.