January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The health ministry on Tuesday claimed to have achieved the highest utilisation of funds in the first half of a financial year by using 87 per cent of the over Rs7 billion provided so far this year.

The ministry bettered last year’s utilisation rate of 80 per cent in the corresponding period and attributed the achievement to improved administration.

The announcement came at a meeting held to review the utilisation of funds and progress on various ongoing projects.

The health ministry has an allocation of Rs14 billion for development projects and is aiming to achieve 95 per cent utilisation.

It now has less than three months to achieve the 95 per cent mark in view of the moratorium imposed by Health Secretary Khushnood Lashari, stopping all procurements after March 31 for the current fiscal year.

The moratorium, it is said, has been imposed to avoid wastage of funds towards the closing of financial year, a practice common in most of the government departments.

Caretaker Minister for Health Ejaz Rahim said the improved utilisation of funds showed good financial discipline in the disbursement of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funds.

The health ministry claimed yet another achievement, saying that it has decided the fate of most of the 100 PSDP projects proposed for this year, approving 77 and rejecting another 11, including a high-profile political project of establishment of a hospital in Chakri.

“The rejection of the Chakri hospital project that was being pushed by a PML-Q stalwart just reveals the non-partisan nature of the decision-making process at the ministry,” said a senior official after the meeting.

One of the main approved projects is the Women Hospital and Chest Diseases Centre being established in Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, the health minister directed the National Institute of Health’s executive director to submit a PC-I for “improvement and upgradation of Public Health Lab System at NIH”.

The government is likely to seek Japanese government’s assistance for establishing the state-of-the-art laboratory in the country.