PESHAWAR, July 25: A recent directive issued by the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) has been misinterpreted by the NWFP government, officials sources said.

The NRB had directed the NWFP government to combine the local funds and district accounts into a single statement instead of keeping separate records to avoid discrepancies. However, the finance department used it to freeze the local government funds, a district government official said.

The official told Dawn that the NRB had directed the provincial government to create a joint account of the district and local funds - a major source of revenue for the districts.

Instead, he said, the MMA government froze the local funds, which might result in another row between the provincial and the district governments.

“The NRB did not propose to freeze the local funds,” the official said.

The district coordination officer, Peshawar had requested the finance department to formulate detailed guidelines in the light of the NRB directives or unfreeze local funds to ensure payment of salaries to employees of different departments, sources said.

However, the city district government did not receive any response from the finance department, sources said.

The city district government had no funds to pay salaries of the contractual employees who were associated with different bodies, sources added.

Acting Finance Secretary Hafiz Matiuallah told Dawn that the finance department would make interim arrangements to pay salaries of the employees.

The matter would be solved when the provincial minister and secretary finance returned home from abroad, he added.

It has also been learnt that the city district government had sought interference from the NRB to resolve the matter.