RAWALPINDI: The annual budget for the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) was approved by the District Development Committee (DDC) on Thursday. With local government elections around the corner, this is perhaps the last annual budget approved by local bureaucracy, in the absence of elected representatives.

The bureaucracy has been running the affairs of the local administration in the district in direct consultation with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. While the PML-N led Punjab government made changes in the system from 2008 to 2015, the District Coordination Officer (DCO) still exercised the powers of the City District Nazim as the administrator of Rawalpindi.

This year, since the transition of power to elected representatives was on the cards, the local administration could have only approved the annual budget for three months and allowed the newly elected officials to make the budget for the rest of the year.

But the civil bureaucracy followed in the footsteps of their military counterparts, who made the annual budget before swearing in elected representatives last month.

Over 90 per cent of the money to go towards salaries

The annual budget, approved on Thursday, for the fiscal year 2015-16 for the Rawalpindi district amounts to Rs10.743 billion, most of which would go towards the salaries of government officials and utility services.

Only Rs215.966 million was allocated for development projects in the seven tehsils of the Rawalpindi District.

The budget for salaries is Rs9.300 billion, Rs1.1 billion has been allocated for contingency and the remaining amount will be used to pay rent for official buildings, utility bills of electricity, telephones and natural gas.

More than 90 percent of funds will be utilised to pay the salaries of 30,822 government employees of CDGR. A major chunk of this share will go towards the salary account of the education department, which will receive Rs7.554 billion and the remaining amount will be distributed among other departments.

The Works and Services department will receive Rs211.223 million, the agriculture department will receive Rs311.277 million, Rs316.998 million will be allocated to community development, Rs7.554 billion would be diverted towards education, the health department will receive Rs1.076 billion, municipal services Rs57.113 million and Rawalpindi Municipal Waste Company will receive Rs720 million for the salaries of their employees.

The Punjab government allocated Rs10.445 billion for the district under the Provincial Finance Commission Award. City District Government share of collection of tax collected from across the province was Rs215 million.

The CDGR set the target of earning Rs204 million during the next fiscal 2015-16. The CDGR’s main sources of earning include commercialisation fees and tax for billboards, Pirwadhai general bus stand and rent of buildings.

District Officer Budget Israr Ahmed told Dawn that the DDC approved the annual budget for the fiscal year 2015-16.

He said the provincial government asked the government departments to adopt austerity measures, minimise fuel consumption and office expenditures to save money.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2015

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