PESHAWAR, Jan 5: Local governments' failure to ensure speedy utilization of development funds given to them during the current financial year has forced the provincial government to stop releasing more money to several of them, official sources said.

The provincial government distributed about Rs72 million among district governments in the first quarter of the current financial year in accordance with a resource-distribution formula reached under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) Award for 2004-05 financial year.

The provincial government is supposed to distribute over Rs606 million among 24 district governments during 2004-05 for development schemes. "The district governments have not showed progress even during the second quarter of the current fiscal as a result of which several of them have not been released more funds," said a development planner of the provincial government.

"Their failure to show satisfactory results has minimized their chances to get the funds they are entitled to during the current financial year," said an official.

The Rs71.9 million development funds released by the finance department in the first quarter of the current financial year were not distributed among all the 24 district governments, officials said. The money was distributed among 10 district governments only, they said.

The district governments of Charsadda, Dir (Lower), Dir (Upper), Hangu, Haripur, Kohat, Kohistan, Lakki Marwat, Mardan, Nowshera, Shangla, Swabi, Swat and Tank did not receive anything from this year's share of uplift funds.

"A majority of them were not released funds because they carried forward considerable amount of money from last year's accounts as they failed to ensure 100 per cent utilization of funds released to them in 2003-04," said the development planner.

In view of the poor performance of majority of the local governments, the officials said, the provincial government had taken a decision at the start of the current financial year that only those district governments would be released funds which were able to carry out development works at a fast pace.

Like the first quarter, the provincial government has not released more funds to some 10 district governments during the second quarter of the current financial year after they failed to improve their performance, the sources added. "Why should they be released more funds when they don't have the capacity to utilize the amount already provided to them," the sources said.