ISLAMABAD, June 24: The government is working on an institutional mechanism for planning and coordination of some national responsibilities, which have been devolved to provincial governments under the 18th constitutional amendment and 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) award, in order to meet constitutional and international obligations.

The need for institutional coordination has been felt because various functions and responsibilities of the devolved ministries — like health, education and population welfare — have been spread out among different federal ministries, some of them newly created. This is not only sending wrong signals to the provinces but also creating confusion at the federal level.

The Planning Commission, informed sources said, had been discussing various options in this regard and would seek guidance from an inter-provincial committee led by Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khurshid Shah on implementation of constitutional reforms.

An official said the commission was facing three key problems after the enforcement of the 18th amendment and the 7th NFC award and felt the need for an institutional mechanism to deal with them. One problem area were the international commitments like loans, protocols and treaties that required the federal government to play a coordinating role even if the key health and education responsibilities were to be looked after by the provinces. These commitments include millennium development goals (MDGs) and Global Fund for assisting health sector initiatives in areas like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Secondly, the Planning Commission is required to submit an annual report on the performance of the National Economic Council (NEC) to the parliament, for which the commission needs to be in constant touch with the provincial governments.

Thirdly, under the federal legislative list (item 32) of the 18th amendment, the federation is responsible for carrying out planning and coordination work on international treaties, conventions and arbitrations.

The officials said various responsibilities of the health and education sectors were currently being looked after by three to four federal ministries, creating confusion not only at the federal level but also at the provincial level.

In some cases, the directives issued by various ministries go against the national plans approved by the Planning Commission or its various bodies like the Central Development Working Party and Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

The sources said that after opposition from the provincial governments to fully take over responsibilities in the health, education and population welfare sectors and to fund them, the Council of Common Interests had agreed to finance these subjects from the federal budget.

However, the finance ministry and the Planning Commission later decided to freeze funding to these projects at Rs14 billion. As a result, the federal government had allocated Rs14 billion for such provincial projects for the next fiscal year.

The provinces had expressed their inability to take over the responsibility of major vertical projects in health, education and population welfare till 2014-15, the terminal year for the NFC. For instance in health sector, the nine major vertical projects (like HIV/AIDS, EPI, hepatitis, polio, malaria, influenza, TB and lady health workers) would continue to be funded and operated by the federal government.

Almost the same is the case with education and population welfare sectors. As a result, the federal government will continue to fund these projects with a total cost of Rs14 billion frozen at the level of fiscal year 2010-11.