PESHAWAR, April 5: Seven district governments of the NWFP have not utilized the funds allocated for development activities during the first eight months of the current financial year , leaving unspent an amount of Rs170 million put at their disposal by the provincial government, official sources told Dawn.

The district governments of Bannu, Battagram, Charsadda, Chitral, Hangu, Malakand and Peshawar have recorded zero development expenditures, making no use of the funds released to them for development activities. The sources said the district governments could not utilize the funds because of their failure to put their annual development programmes in place.

"The city district government, Peshawar, got its ADP approved from the district council on Feb 27, leaving it in no position to utilize the funds," said an official source.

Similarly, the sources added, district governments of Bannu, Battagram and Malakand got their ADPs approved in January, while the district government of Charsadda put its ADP in place in February.

District governments of Chitral and Hangu acted in a more lamentable manner as they could not utilize their funds despite getting their ADPs approved as early as in November and December.

Most of the district governments, according to the sources, could not prepare their ADPs well in time because of lack of initiative on the part of district administrations, shortage of experienced technical staff and absence of inter-departmental coordination.

Similarly, political differences within the district councils in some of the cases also hindered speedy formulation of ADPs. The provincial government, in line with its budgetary plan, was supposed to distribute Rs867 million among 24 district governments of the province during the 2003-04 financial year to enable them to carry out development schemes.

Distribution of funds was to be made in accordance with the districts' share determined on the basis of a resource distribution formula envisaged under the current financial year's Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award.

Though the provincial government distributed funds in accordance with its prepared plan, district governments, in majority of the cases, failed to act in an effective manner.

The provincial government has so far distributed Rs655 million among 24 district governments. The amount was meant to support development initiatives during the first three quarters of the current financial year.

However, the district governments, added the sources, collectively utilized only Rs75 million during the first eight months of the current financial year, leaving an amount of around Rs580 million - of the total released funds - unspent.

The fund utilization makes nine per cent of the Rs655 million distributed among the 24 district government so far, and 12 per cent of the Rs75 million utilized during the first eight months of the 2003-04 financial year. Only nine of the district governments managed to utilize a part of funds released to them.

The highest amount of development expenditure was recorded by the district government of Abbottabad (Rs25 million), followed by the district government of Kohat (Rs24 million).

The district government of Karak recorded an expenditure of Rs13 million, the district government of D.I.Khan Rs9 million, the district government of Shangla Rs1.1 million, the district government of Mardan Rs1.1 million and the district government of Tank recorded an expenditure of about Rs220,000 during the first eight months of the current financial year.