ISLAMABAD: On paper South Waziristan Agency (SWA) has received Rs4 billion development funds over the last five years, but on ground there is little to be seen where such a huge amount was spent in the tribal area.

The Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) headed by retired Lt Gen Abdul Qadir Baloch has initiated an exercise to determine if the funds had been used for any development activity.

According to official documents, Rs4bn was released for development schemes in 14 sectors in the region. During its five-year tenure, the PPP had earmarked Rs8bn for South Waziristan but could release only half of the amount.

A ministry official said the purpose of the exercise is to find out how much money had been siphoned off in the name of development.

Besides the Rs4bn earmarked for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), he said, several lawmakers claimed to have spent their annual development grants on uplift schemes.

During the first year of the PPP government, every parliamentarian was given Rs10 million grant for development schemes in their constituencies. It was later increased to Rs20m.

“Truly speaking if the ministry goes ahead with scrutiny of all the schemes which have been presented on papers but are missing on ground, it will unmask many faces who have benefited in the name of violence-hit, poor masses of the agency,” the official said.

Several lawmakers, including those elected on seats reserved for women, had obtained funds for development projects in the SWA and other tribal areas.

Records of the ministry show that the PSDP had covered all sectors. Over the past five years the agency received Rs1.10bn for education, Rs280m for health, Rs920m for communications, Rs61m for housing, Rs101m for power, Rs62m for agriculture extension, Rs60m for livestock and dairy development, Rs273m for forestry, Rs40m for rural development, Rs295m for regional development, Rs417m for irrigation, Rs187m for technical education and Rs1.3m for social welfare.

The ministry official said that because of poor law and order it was not possible to take effective follow-up action. Hence, it appears that most of the funds landed in contractors’ pockets.

Famously, Bushra Gohar of the Awami National Party, got one such contractor arrested from the parliament lodges in October 2010. He had approached her with an offer of commission if she allowed him to complete a development scheme from her share of annual development grants.

The military also is not happy with the pace of development activities in South Waziristan after it cleared the area from militants back in 2009.

Development funds received from the PSDP are distributed to all tribal agencies and frontier regions under an annual development plan. The share of each tribal agency and frontier region is determined on the basis of a formula approved by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor whereby 65 per cent weightage is given to population and 35 per cent to other factors.