PESHAWAR, Dec 30: Financial hardships faced by local governments was attributed to uneven resource distribution envisaged under the Provincial Finance Commission award and provincial government’s guidelines in this regard.

Experts pointed out a variety of problems, official procedures, legal irritants, lacunas in the local government ordinance, 2001 and shortage of funds were hindering the smooth functioning of the district governments.

Participants of a day-long consultative workshop titled “Fiscal and Financial Decentralization” explained that financial problems faced by the newly-established administrative entities were because of in-built lacunas in the local government ordinance, 2001, provincial government’s guidelines for planning and executing development projects, irregular and insufficient flow of funds and ‘interference’ in their affairs on the part of the provincial government.

District nazims, district coordination officers, bureaucrats representing the provincial finance department, local government and rural development department, planning and development department, finance department and establishment department took part in the day-long discussion.

District nazims of Bannu, Kohat and Lakki Marwat took exception to the provincial government for, what they termed its failure to decentralize financial powers to the district governments.

The workshop was organized by the NWFP government’s capacity- building advisory board here on Tuesday.

Not only that the district governments, they added, were being transferred insignificant amounts under the PFC award, they had been restrained from spending money on their own as their expenditure account was being closely monitored by the provincial government.

They said the district governments were not allowed to plan new development projects.