PESHAWAR, Feb 23: The NWFP district governments failed to improve the speed of development schemes' execution even during the second quarter of the current financial year, according to official sources.
During the first six months of the current fiscal year, the 24 district governments cumulatively spent about 4.6 per cent of the total amount allocated to them under the provincial government's districts-specific annual development programme (ADP) for 2003-04.
The provincial government had chalked out a Rs867.054 million ADP for the district governments for the current fiscal year. Each of the district governments would get funds, from the same amount, in line with their respective annual share determined under the resource distribution formula envisaged under the Provincial Finance Commission award for 2003-04.
Out of the total earmarked funds, said the sources, an amount of Rs444.808 million was released in two instalments by the NWFP finance department by the close of the first half of the current fiscal year.
However, against the Rs444 million put at the district governments' disposal a paltry sum of about Rs40 million could be utilised in the same period. The amount utilised makes about 4.6 per cent of the total annual allocation and about 9 per cent of the funds released to the district governments so far.
The district governments had utilised about Rs20 million by the end of the first five months of the current financial year. The amount utilised rose to slightly over Rs40 million by the end of the first six months after some of the district governments reported additional expenditure of around Rs20 million to the provincial government's authorities concerned.
"The chances of 100 per cent utilisation of the Rs867 million allocated amount during the current financial year appears to be a remote possibility as majority of the district governments are in no position to spend the entire amount of funds earmarked for them separately," said a senior development planner of the province.
By the end of the first six months of the 2003-04 financial year, only 11 districts - out of 24 the province has - had got their respective ADP put in place by getting the same approved from their respective district council.
Of the 11 districts, only eight reported expenditure to the provincial government during the first half of the current financial year. However, official sources expressed the hope that situation vis-a-vis utilisation of district governments' ADP funds would record substantial improvement during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year - as had been the case in the past.
Non-utilisation of development funds has partly been attributed to the lack of coordination between elected representatives and district governments' departments in addition to inability on the part of majority of the union councils and town municipal administrations to put their respective ADPs in place.
"Like the district governments, majority of the town municipal administrations and union councils have not prepared their respective ADPs though eighth month of the current fiscal year is about to end," said the development planner.
Their failure to put ADPs in place has partially been attributed to the lack of consensus among members of the district councils and the Mushavrati committees - constituted at the district level - in respect of approving district-specific development schemes.
This fact has also been mentioned in an important official document prepared recently by a department of the provincial government to assess the reasons causing delay in the utilisation of development funds. Consensus between the district councillors and the Mushavrati committee usually leads to delay in ADP's approval and utilisation of development funds.