ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works has approved Rs27.66 billion for 123 schemes under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the financial year 2016-17.
A meeting of the committee was held in the Parliament House on Thursday with Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari in the chair to scrutinise budgetary proposals relating to the PSDP of the ministry of housing and works.
The Pakistan Works Department (PWD) will execute the projects, it was informed.
The committee while going through the PSDP proposals observed that delay in execution of work had resulted in the revision of PC-I, cost escalation of the projects and burdening of the national exchequer. Therefore, it directed the ministry to award the work on time to avoid waste of public money.
The secretary of the ministry of housing and works apprised the committee that the cost escalation and late execution of projects was due to delays in release of funds by the finance and planning ministries.
He said the issue was taken up time and again with the two ministries but it remained unresolved. The committee decided to sort out the issue by calling representatives of finance and planning ministries in its next meeting. It also directed the ministry to prioritise the maintenance of government-owned residential accommodations and other buildings.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Rajab Ali Khan Baloch, Sahibzada Faiz-ul-Hasan, Ghulam Muhammad Lali, Nasir Iqbal Bosal, Tahira Aurangzeb, Nighat Parveen Mir, Faqir Sher Muhammad Bilalani, Sajid Nawaz, Molana Ameer Zaman, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, director general PWD Ali Akbar Sheikh and other senior officers of departments concerned.
Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016
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