PESHAWAR: The nazims of several districts on Tuesday came down hard on the PTI government for denying them ‘more than half of their share’ in development funds for the last financial year and insisted that the shortage of funds had halted ongoing schemes and blocked the launch of new ones.

“Several districts, tehsils and village and neighborhood councils didn’t get a single penny in 2017-18,” KP Local Council Association president Himayatullah Mayar told Dawn after the executive council meeting of the LCA here.

The meeting was attended by LCA senior vice president and district nazim of Upper Dir Fasihullah, convener Syed Ahmed Ali Shah, vice president and Peshawar district naib nazim Qasim Ali Shah, LCA finance secretary and Hangu tehsil nazim Amir Ghani, LCA general secretary Asif Ali Jah and press secretary Ali Haider.

Mr Mayar said the government’s failure to release funds to local bodies went against the spirit of the local government system.

Demand financial, administrative empowerment of local governments

He said under the KP Local Government Act, 2013, the provincial government was bound to give 30 percent funds allocated for the provincial Annual Development Programme to the local governments.

The nazim said the provincial ADP for the previous fiscal year had an outlay of Rs208 billion, including the Rs126 billion provincial component and Rs83 billion foreign component.

He said keeping in view the 30 percent formula under the law, the local governments had Rs37.8 billion as their share in the budget.

Mayar said instead of Rs37.8 billion, the provincial government agreed on giving only Rs 28 billion as share of the local bodies when the Provincial Finance Commission Award was announced, he said.

He however said the provincial government released less than half of the Rs28 billion to the local bodies.

Dir Upper district nazim Fasihullah told Dawn that his district’s share in the provincial finance award totaled Rs270 million but only 50 per cent of it was released.

“On June 30, the provincial government informed us that the remaining 50 per cent share would not be released without any justification,” he said.

The nazim said his government had completed official work for the utilisation of Rs270 million and tenders were also floated for the development schemes.

He said he couldn’t see contractors over nonpayment of dues.

Malakand district nazim Ahmad Ali Shah said the finance department asked all district governments about their expected share in the provincial ADP under the PFC Award before the start of every financial year.

“In light of the expected share in the provincial ADP, the three tiers of the local bodies prepare budgets and approve from the respective councils but the complete denial of funds put nazims in an embarrassing and tough situation,” he said.

Earlier in the meeting, the nazims asked the provincial government to consult them before amending the local government law.

They said the law should be amended after the incumbent local bodies completed their term in office.

The nazims asked the provincial government to give financial and administrative powers to the district governments and said the directorates of various government departments including education and health should be abolished before being put at the disposal of district governments.

They said nazims should be made the countersigning officer of the annual performance report of the district level officers of police, education, health and other departments.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2018