ISLAMABAD, June 7: The government has conceded that the performance of the water and power ministry has been dismal.

Despite exceeding the spending limit by almost 25 per cent, the ministry has admitted that none of the service delivery targets assigned to it in the federal budget could be met during the current financial year.

Besides the investments made by the ministry of water and power, the ministry of finance provided a subsidy of Rs346 billion in 2010-11 for keeping the electricity tariff on the lower side, but power rates continuously went up.

In its performance report released as part of the federal budget 2012-13, the ministry has reported ‘zero achievement’ on five of major performance indicators relating to output or service delivery.

In “medium-term budget estimates for service delivery 2010-13”, the ministry of water and power had committed to be judged by the most important objective of “availability of cheap electricity and irrigation water to the population of Pakistan for the socio-economic uplift of the country”.

The electricity tariff, according to the ministry, has gone up by over 56 per cent since then, but unofficial estimates put the tariff increase to the extent of 125 per cent since March 2010.

Load-shedding has also increased during the period, although official figures about average electricity shortfall are not available.

The ministry was to achieve the `outcome’ with an investment of Rs27.7 billion during 2010-11 in public sector projects.

A few days ago, it reported exceeding the investment target by 24.5 per cent to Rs34.5 billion during the year. A comparison of the medium-term service delivery report of 2010-13 and 2012-15 suggests that the ministry did not make even a negligible progress.

In the area of water resource monitoring and flood mitigation, the ministry was required to provide 100 per cent timely issuance of flood warning and 65 per cent reduction in flood-related damage.

It reported no progress on that front as confirmed by circumstantial evidence during floods of 2010 and 2011.

No progress has been reported also on 100 per cent timely documentation of administrative support. The ministry was committed to reducing load-shedding by 60 per cent, but no improvement has been reported.

The ministry was also required to achieve 100 per cent coordination with private investors regarding alternative energy initiatives, but reported no progress on that count as well.

Likewise, it was required to complete 12 research studies, initiate 17 new studies and hold eight seminars and conduct 12 capacity building trainings but reported no achievement on the performance indicators.

The ministry was also required to start work on 17 small dams, complete six small dams and start two large dams and increase water storage capacity by 3.2 million acre feet, but reported no progress in the report. It was required to achieve a water storage capacity of 16.3 million acre feet, but it missed the target.