ISLAMABAD: Though the federal government has decided to increase the development budget of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) from Rs22 billion to Rs35 billion in the next fiscal year, the Ministry of Finance failed to release a major portion of the commission’s budget in the outgoing financial year.

The National Economic Council recently approved the Rs35.662 billion development budget of the HEC for the financial year 2017-18, which is considered a record increase.

“The PML-N government has decided to give a big raise to the HEC in the upcoming budget which will be the last one in its five-year tenure. The decision to increase the budget from Rs22 billion to Rs35 billion is a big development and we appreciate it. But, unfortunately, the government released only Rs8.6 billion of the Rs22 billion earmarked for the HEC in the current fiscal year which is going to end on June 30,” said an official of the Ministry of Education.

He said in case the government did not release the approved funds by June 30, the raise in the upcoming fiscal year would be tantamount to a political gimmick. Sources in the education ministry said during the third and fourth quarter of the fiscal year the HEC got nothing from the finance ministry.

“The HEC received Rs4,297.300 million in the first quarter and Rs3,683.424 million in the second quarter. Though the Planning Commission had authorised the release of Rs4,798.580 million in the third quarter and Rs5,825.239 million in the fourth quarter, the HEC got no funds during this period,” he added.

The delay in the release of the budget always creates problems. The required budget should have been released in quarters so that the HEC could execute new projects and complete the ongoing ones,” said the official.

He said in case the government released the funds at the end of the financial year, the commission would try to spend a much amount as possible in haste in order to save the amount from being lapsed, but the process will compromise on the quality of work.

When contacted, acting spokesman for the HEC Waseem Khaliqdad said efforts were underway to get the approved funds from the Ministry of Finance.

“So far we have received almost Rs8.6 billion out of the total Rs22 billion but our talks are underway to get the remaining funds from the ministry,” he said, adding the Planning Commission had already authorised the finance ministry to release the approved funds to the HEC.

“There is a little delay but we are hopeful to get the funds from the finance ministry before June 30.” He said the incumbent government during its four years made a significant increase in the budget of the HEC. “For the coming fiscal year we will be given Rs35 billion, which is indeed a big development for the country’s higher education sector,” he said.

For the outgoing fiscal year, the government had allocated Rs21,486.487 million for the HEC under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP). According to the budgetary documents, Rs5426.631 million had been earmarked for new schemes and Rs16,059.856 million for ongoing schemes of the HEC.

The allocated amount for the new schemes included a PhD scholarship programme under Pak-US Knowledge Corridor Phase 1 with total outlay of Rs300 million while Rs297.981 million had been earmarked for the upgradation of universities in less-developed areas.

An amount of Rs200 million had been allocated for the Women University campuses at Pishin and Khuzdar.

The ongoing schemes included the establishment of Fata University for which Rs250 million had been earmarked while Rs350 million were to be spent on the establishment of the University of Loralai and Rs50 million on the establishment of University of Sibi, Balochistan.

A sum of Rs500 million had been earmarked for the Fulbright Scholarships Support Programme of USAID Phase 2 while Rs900 million had been allocated for the indigenous PhD fellowship for 5,000 scholars (Phase 2). The HEC officials said some of the projects had been completed through the amount the commission received during the first two quarters of the fiscal year.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017