PESHAWAR, Aug 27: Departmental heads and project directors of the provincial government have been directed to expedite execution of ongoing development projects and ensure early preparation of PC-1s during the current financial year.

The latest instructions have been necessitated to improve utilization of development funds and accelerate the pace of development projects in an attempt to avoid repeating past mistakes  when millions of rupees remained unspent due to slow execution of  development works by the executing agencies.

The MMA-led government experienced quite an embarrassing situation during the last financial year when a major chunk of development funds worth multi-billion rupees provided by the World Bank as loan under its Structural Adjustment Credit (SAC) facility remained unspent, undermining the NWFP’s chances of qualifying for the second tranche which is due in the current financial year.

Official sources told Dawn that while presiding over a high level meeting here on Tuesday, the NWFP Minister for Finance, Planning and Development, Sirajul Haq directed administrative secretaries of all departments and project directors to take appropriate measures at early stages of the 2003-04 financial year so that development funds provided by the donor agencies should be utilized properly.

Project directors and development planners working in all departments of the provincial government were asked to prepare PC-Is of the new development works in the initial stages of the current financial year.

After failing to satisfy the World Bank by its performance in the 2002-03 financial year, the NWFP government, said the sources, was vigorously trying to bring about the much needed improvement in all sectors, particularly in those areas which were being concentrated on under the Structural Adjustment Credit facility.