PC forced to breach limit on funds releases

Ishfaq A Mughal

Due to uneven political pressure, the Planning Commission has breached a maximum limit set for disbursement of funds in the first half of a fiscal year released 41% of its annual development budget so far. 

Under the rules of disbursment, the PC is authorized to not more than 20 pecent of total allocated development funds in first quarter, 20 pecent in second quarter, 25 percent in third quarter and 35 pecent in last quarter of the fiscal year. 

Owing to uneven releases apparently under political pressure, the PC has released Rs95.3 billion from July to November duirng current fiscal year, according to official documents. The amount is precisely 40.9% of the Commission’s original component of Rs233 billion. Due to this, many strategic and healthcare projects either remained under-funded or in some cases no funds were provided at all.

For the current fiscal year, the federal government has allocated Rs360 billion for the development budget. Of that, Rs27 billion is at the disposal of the prime minister and Cabinet Division and the remaining Rs100 billion is the foreign aid component, which is with the Economic Affairs Division.

The PC sources said the Commission was under pressure to release more than the allocated funds. They added Minister of State for Water and Power Tasneem Qureshi was pressurising the PC to give an additional Rs100 million for his project. He has already consumed his total annual allocation. Qureshi’s case is pending with Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh for a decision.

The PC could not restrict release of funds in the case of projects of interest of the highups of the state. It has released entire annual allocations of Rs350 million for a bridge over Indus River in Larkana, Rs70 million for rehabilitation of Larkana-Kambar Road, Rs100 million for Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Mother and Child Healthcare Centre Nawabshah, Rs300 million for Multan Inner Road Ring project and entire allocations were also released for two road projects of Gujar Khan.

Similarly, the PC has also released entire sums for its own projects. The Commission released Rs101.4 million for the PPMI Complex Islamabad. The sources said there were reports of embezzlement in the project as the building was not constructed as per design.

However, a PC spokesperson defended the releases and said that the government wanted to complete over 180 projects in the current fiscal year, half of those before December. “If we follow the finance ministry’s formula, we will not be able to complete the task on time,” he added.

Because of uneven releases, no money has been disbursed for projects under the Prime Minister’s programme for prevention of Hepatitis, national programme for prevention of blindness, enhanced HIV/AIDS programme, malaria and tuberculosis control programmes. Total annual allocation for these half a dozen projects is Rs2 billion.

Similarly, the human rights ministry got only 2.4% of the annual allocation and both, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and Narcotics Control Divisions got roughly 18% of their annual budget. Some of the projects of the water and power sector were also under-funded.