PESHAWAR, Sept 19: The NWFP government’s instructions to the district governments to pay their electricity charges in time have failed to attract serious consideration, officials told Dawn .
The provincial government had repeatedly asked the districts and its own departments to ensure timely payment of the monthly electricity charges to avoid complication and reconcile their accounts with the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to resolve the issue of electricity dues.
In a meeting held here recently the chief secretary had again issued instructions to the administrative secretaries of the provincial government’s departments and heads of all the district governments to reconcile their accounts with Wapda to settle the issue of arrears in addition to ensuring timely payment of electricity bills to avoid pilling up of liabilities.
“However, like past this time, too, the district governments appear to be least pushed,” said a senior government functionary.
The provincial government, according to sources, deducted at source about Rs230 million in July from the district governments’ monthly share from the provincial resources to recover the amount it (provincial government) paid to clear their electricity dues.
The district governments had been once again advised to pay their monthly electricity charges in time otherwise the provincial government would resort to at source deduction if Wapda subjected it to pay their (district governments) dues.
The official sources said the district governments had never taken such instruction — issued in the past — seriously and the funds provided to them by the province to pay their monthly electricity charges were found to be used on other accounts.
Out of the total funds provided every month to each district government, separate allocation is made for the payment of electricity charges to help them ensure effective utilization of public funds with the dual purpose of avoiding piling up of electricity dues in an effort to minimize the chances of confrontation with Wapda in future.
In several of the cases, said the official sources, it was found that the funds provided for the payment of electricity charges were utilized for certain other purposes ignoring the provincial government’s instructions.