PESHAWAR, Feb 7: Seventeen districts in the NWFP have failed to spend even a single penny from the Provincial Finance Commission award for the first quarter of fiscal 2004-05, say official sources.

Although the use of uplift funds recorded some improvement in the second quarter, the overall picture still appeared grim at the close of the July-December period of the year, they said. And substantial development funds remained unspent by the end of December 2004.

A high-level meeting, held recently at the Peshawar civil secretariat to review the district governments' performance on their respective annual development programmes (ADPs), found that 17 districts of the 24 had yet to start spending funds from their share.

In accordance with the PFC award, the NWFP government is required to distribute Rs606 million among the 24 district governments.

Official sources said the district governments of Abbottabad, Bannu, Battagram, Buner, Charsadda, Dir (Lower), Dir (Upper), Hangu, Karak, Kohistan, Malakand, Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar, Swabi, Swat and Tank had reported the 'zero' expenditure.