PESHAWAR, Nov 26: Political uncertainty has affected the development programme in the NWFP as implementing agencies have collectively utilized only 12 per cent of the funds allocated for different projects in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Officials told Dawn that the utilisation of funds during the first three months of the current fiscal is two per cent lower than the overall spending of corresponding period of the last financial year when an elected government was in place.

They attributed the unsatisfactory performance of various departments to political instability that culminated in a premature dissolution of the Frontier assembly and end of an elected government.

“The implementing agencies have no clear guidelines about the fate of projects initiated by the previous government” they said, adding that previously the MMA ministers and MPAs kept an eye on the progress of the projects in their constituencies.

Some of the planners, however, also count lack of capacity of the departments and absence of rational policies and skilled staff as some of the other reasons behind the poor utilisation of funds.

Government departments during the first quarter of the current fiscal year collectively utilised just over 12 per cent of thefunds.

Considering 2007 as the election year, the MMA set-up had unveiled a record annual development programme (ADP) worth Rs39.462 billion.

The ADP included Rs21.944 billion for the schemes projected under the provincial ADP component, Rs7.975 billion under foreign-aided projects, Rs406.99 million for population welfare, Rs1.204 billion for district programmes and Rs7.931 billion for the special programme component.

The sources said that the finance department, in the first three months had released Rs20.539 billion, placing a major portion of the allocated amount at the disposal of departments at the very outset of the current year. These releases account for 52 per cent of the total allocation.

The departments concerned were able to utilise only Rs4.985 billion.

Statistics show that an amount of Rs17.412 billion was released for provincial ADP out of Rs21.944 billion allocation of this component.

But, only Rs3.906 billion was utilised, putting the expenditure ratio at 17.8 per cent of the total allocation.

Similarly, of the total allocation of Rs7.975 billion for foreign-aided projects component, an amount of Rs1.305 billion was released, out of which only Rs445.48 million was utilised reflecting the overall utilisation ratio in this sector at 5.6 per cent.

Likewise, Rs101.75 million was released for population welfare component of the ADP against Rs406.99 million allocation, out of which only Rs68.23 million was spent which is 16.8 per cent of the total allocation.

An amount of Rs13.35 billion was released for special programme component of the ADP against Rs7.931 billion allocations, out of which total utilisation was Rs546.206 million that leaves the spending ratio at 6.9 per cent of the total allocation.

Funds utilization on district programme was also highly disappointing.

The provincial government had allocated Rs1.204 billion for district ADP, out of which Rs383.85 million was released to district governments.