RAWALPINDI: The annual budget for the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa), and the Pakistan and Horticulture Authority (PHA) has not been approved even though the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year ended last month.

A senior official of the provincial finance department told Dawn it was necessary for the civic bodies to prepare their annual budget and get it approved by the governing body.

He said the civic bodies needed to get their budgets approved before the start of the fiscal year, but this time, the process was stalled because the Punjab government had failed to constitute the governing body.

An RDA official said their budget had been prepared and would be presented to the governing body once it was formed. “It is not illegal but one can say irregular…but it is the fault of the Punjab government, not the civic body,” he said.

Uplift schemes in limbo in absence of governing body

He said the RDA had spent money to pay for the salaries and other expenditures and it had been done on emergency basis. “There is no development work in the garrison city while one joint check post was constructed at Koral Chowk on Old Airport Road for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit,” he said.

According to the rules of the RDA and PHA, the governing body – besides its powers to approve the annual budget –had the authority to prepare and execute new schemes and implement short- and long-term development projects.

The governing body comprises a chairman and 16 members, including the secretaries of finance, local government, urban development, Rawalpindi commissioner, deputy commissioner, mayor, RDA director general, Wasa managing director, three MPAs, and two technical members.

The RDA and PHA have been functioning without a chairman and elected members for the last two years. After the PTI government’s ouster, the governing body was dissolved. At present, the commissioner looks after the affairs of the civic body along with the local bureaucracy.

On the other hand, former RDA chairman and PTI leader Arif Abbasi said that the provincial government’s negligence caused the civic bodies in the city to function without rules and regulations.

“The departments and civic bodies have to follow the rules as in the absence of rules and regulations corruption will increase in these organisations. It is necessary for the provincial government to form the governing body for the smooth functioning of the civic agency,” he said.

Dawn tried to get a version of RDA Director General Kinza Murtaza but she was not available. A senior official, however, told Dawn that the RDA and Wasa had prepared the budget but they were waiting for its approval. He said many development schemes and important decisions were awaiting the governing body’s nod.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2024