PESHAWAR, Nov 18: The salary budget of the district governments in the NWFP will be managed by the provincial government during the current  financial year, not leaving much room for them to handle their funds on  their own, according to sources.

“The decision has been necessitated, at least for one more year, in view of the lack of capacity and experience on the part of the district  governments to manage their financial affairs effectively,” said official sources.

The provincial government, they said, had released 40 per cent of the salary budget of the 24 district governments, ensuring the payment of their employees’ salaries for the first four or five months of the financial year.

Involving a total strength of 274,261 employees, the NWFP government’s wage bill for 2002-03 has been estimated at over Rs17.9 billion, of which around Rs12.3 billion would be paid to the employees of the district governments.

However, the district governments would not be able to divert funds - even temporarily - out of the salary  account to meet any other obligation.

The decision, said the sources, had been taken in view of the problems the new administrative set up was facing in terms of “properly and effectively” managing their financial affairs.

In accordance with the scheme of things adopted by the provincial government for the current financial year, the district governments would  meet their establishment cost - other than salaries - from the funds provided to them every month in line with a resource distribution formula laid down under the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC).

Though the district governments have been released a colossal amount to meet their salary requirements, they would not be able to utilize it for any other purpose.

“The funds released for salary would only be utilized to pay wages to  the staff every month,” said a senior official of a district government.

In this way, elaborated the official, the district governments would not have independence to divert amount from the salary account to any other account. Thus they would be left with no room to apply financial management even in times of need.

The resource distribution formula laid down under the interim PFC award - in its first year of application -  also does not cover the salary budget of the district governments.

“The funds to be diverted to the district governments in accordance  with the PFC award would be meant for development works and recurring expenditure other than salary bill,” said a senior official of the provincial government.

Officials of the provincial government said the decision had secured the salaries of the district governments’ staff.  

“The dist governments might be having problems in catering to their financial requirements under any other head, but their monthly obligation on account of salary would remain secured in accordance with the provincial government’s decision,” said the sources.