PESHAWAR, Jan 11: The provincial government has released 50 per cent of the total amount allocated for the district governments for the 2002-03 fiscal year to meet their budgetary requirements under the salary and non-salary heads, official sources said.

“The move has come in line with a decision of the previous provincial government,” said a senior government official.

In its budgetary measures for the 2002-03 financial year, the previous provincial government had underlined to release 40 per cent of the salary and non-salary budgets of the district governments — 24 in NWFP — during the first half of the financial year and 50 per cent more during the second half, according to sources.

With the release of more funds to meet the requirements of their salary and non-salary budgets during the second half of the fiscal, the total funds released to the district governments during the current financial year rose to 90 per cent out of the total annual allocation.

The provincial government had allocated Rs12.29 billion to pay salaries to the district governments’ apart from Rs1.1 billion to meet the administrative entities’ recurring expenses (non-salary budget).

The release of funds to the district governments, said the sources, did not mean that they had been transferred money. Rather, it meant that the district governments had been enabled to get any specific amount of funds (in cash) after obtaining required sanction from the competent provincial authority against the expenses covered under the non-salary budget, assigned to district governments.

Despite the fact that funds to pay monthly salaries of the district governments’ employees had been released by the provincial government they could not be utilized for any other purpose on the part of the district administrations.

“This subject has not yet been delegated to the district governments as their employees’ salaries would continue to be taken care by the provincial government at least for one more year (the current financial year),” said the official sources.