ISLAMABAD, June 5: The National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) budget for the year 2006-07 has increased by Rs25 million. According to the budget document the total budget of the bureau for the forthcoming fiscal year will be amounting to Rs797 million against its current year’s budget of Rs771 million.

The document said NAB would spend an amount of Rs331.7 million on employees related expenses but it did not mention what types of expenses they would be. The current year’s employees related expenses were amounting to Rs284 million.

An amount of Rs141 million has been allocated for the salaries of the employees against Rs133 million earmarked for this head for the outgoing fiscal year.

NAB would spend a sum of Rs74 million on the salaries of officers in the year 2006-07 compared to Rs71 million utilised for this purpose in the last budget.

An amount of Rs66 million would be spent on the salaries of other staff while in the current fiscal year, Rs61 million were spent on it.

In order to give allowances to the NAB staff, a sum of Rs170 million has been earmarked against Rs151 million spent under this head in the current fiscal year.

For regular allowances Rs126 million have been allocated while Rs43 million have been earmarked for other allowances for the year 2006-07. However, in the current fiscal year Rs108 million were spent on regular allowances and Rs42 million for other allowances.

The government has allocated an amount of Rs440 million for operating expenses of NAB for the next financial year. This amount has been reduced by Rs5 million as the last year allocation for this head was Rs445 million.

An amount of Rs6,000 has been earmarked for grant subsidies and write off loans while in the current year’s budget Rs7,000 were spent for this purpose.

For transfer of employees from one station to another, an amount of Rs1.88 million has been allocated against Rs1.80 million earmarked in the last budget.

The document showed Rs20.7 million physical assets of the bureau which amounted to Rs20.9 million in the current year’s budget.

A sum of Rs22.5 million have been allocated for repair and maintenance of NAB buildings and vehicles but last year Rs19.6 million were earmarked for this head.