PESHAWAR, Nov 13: The NWFP government is likely to experience a difficult time at the end of the current financial year at the hands of its major donor agencies as its departments have yet to speed up the process of preparing PC-Is for majority of the development schemes forming part of the 2003-04 financial year’s annual development programme, according to official sources.

Instructions issued by the authorities concerned to the line departments at the start of the current fiscal year asking them to prepare PC-Is of their development schemes at an early stage of the financial year failed to achieve the desired results.

Well-placed official sources told Dawn that the government’s attempts to ensure execution of the annual development plan at a fast pace could not yield the desired results with the departments failing to comply with the instructions.

The provincial minister for finance, planning and development, Siraj-ul-Haq, had announced at the start of the current financial year that the government had constituted a high-level committee under his chairmanship to monitor development activities throughout the province in an effort to execute the ADP at a fast pace in fulfilment of conditions set forth by the donor agencies.

The need to ensure quick utilization of development funds during the current financial year had been felt after the World Bank — a major donor to the NWFP government — expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of development works during the last financial year.

During the first three quarters of the last financial year, the provincial government’s project executing agencies and line departments could hardly spend around 20 per cent of the total funds they had been provided for the development works.

“Though the provincial government tried to avoid repetition of the last financial year’s situation to come up to the expectations of the lending agency, it is still finding it difficult to ensure speedy execution of the development works during the current financial year,” an official of the provincial government told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

Official sources attributed the delay in preparing PC-Is of new development schemes at a fast pace to the government’s decision of incorporating around 1,000 new schemes in the current fiscal year’s development budget and non-availability of sufficient resources for development schemes.

In addition to that, added a source, the departments were in a state of confusion because of the recently undertaken derive on the part of the provincial government to revamp its ADP for the current financial year in fulfilment of a condition of the World Bank.

The NWFP government has been required by the World Bank to reduce the number of its development schemes from the current fiscal year’s ADP to curtail the quantum of throw forward liability.

The throw forward liability of the province has gone as high as to Rs47 billion after the provincial government incorporated over 1,150 schemes (including 1,000 new schemes) in the 203-04 financial year.

Sources in the provincial planning and development department said the move to restructure the 2003-04 financial year’s ADP was in its final stages and the final document would shortly be submitted to the World Bank — which has tied the release of the second tranche of its loan with the restructuring of the ADP.

Unless the ADP issue was resolved with the lending agency, the state of confusion would prevail among the provincial government’s departments, apprehended a development planner of the province.

Officials apprehended that without the World Bank’s assistance the current financial year’s ADP would collapse because the provincial government in no way was in a position to arrange 100 per cent of the funds for executing the Rs14.6 billion ADP for the 2003-04 financial year.

The ADP involves a component of around Rs3.8 billion to be executed if the World Bank releases the second tranche of $90 million under its structural adjustment credit (SAC) to finance the provincial reforms programme.

“The departments’ efforts would go in vain if they prepare PC-Is in time and the government does not get the second tranche,” said the official, adding that “in such a situation the government would not be left with any option but to scrap the Rs3.8 billion component of the ADP.”

However, another officer apprehended that in either way — whether the World Bank releases the second tranche or not — the current financial year’s ADP was expected to land in a difficult situation.

Some sources said there were greater chances that the provincial government would release the second tranche in the near future after it had complied with the World Bank’s condition to bring down the number of development schemes under the ADP.

In such a situation when the departments were expected to get the bulk of the development funds during the third quarter they appeared to be least prepared to utilize 100 per cent of the funds.