LAYYAH: The office of chief executive officer (CEO) of the District Education Authority (DEA) has become a classic example of poor performance and misuse of authority as non-salary budget provided to various schools of the district has lapsed.

The Punjab government released Rs8.4 billion as non-salary budget for schools in all the districts. Layyah received Rs552 million for its 1,486 schools.

Each primary school was allocated Rs20,000 for the purchase of tablets and Rs40,000 for miscellaneous expenditures. Every middle school was to receive Rs20,000 for tablets and Rs80,000 for miscellaneous expenses. While high schools received Rs20,000 for tablets and Rs180,000 for other expenditures.

DEA failed to utilise Rs552m released for 1,486 schools

Each primary school was also allocated Rs411,000 for construction of a classroom and Rs20,000 as monthly rent for coaches. A middle school was assigned Rs20,000 for coach rent and Rs822,000 for construction of two classrooms, while each high school got Rs822,000 for two classrooms and additional Rs100,000 for toilets, if required.

However, the entire budget allocated to schools lapsed as the education authority failed to utilise it. District Officer (DO) Elementary Azra Tabbasum, who is the acting CEO of the DEA, said she was in charge only for a few days as the CEO was on leave and that she did not know anything about the lapse of budget.

Budget Assistant Director Mehr Abdul Majeed said the DO (secondary education) was made in-charge of non-salary budget and he was not responsible for it.

DO (Secondary Education) Zulfiqar Sohrani also refused to take responsibility and said CEO Khalida Shaheen had submitted a written request to schools secretary for reallocation of the budget.

Syed Niaz Hussain Gilani, regional coordinator for non-governmental organisation Alif Ailan, said he had held a meeting with the DEA chief and apprised her about the availability of non-salary funds for schools and she had pledged that they would soon utilise the budget according to allocations. He further alleged that the deputy commissioner, who is the finance controller of the district, was also responsible for non-utilisation of the budget.

All DEAs had utilised their non-salary budget while some had even demanded more from the government, but the Layyah DEA was not even able to spend a single penny, which speaks volumes of its incapacity and neglect, Gillani added.

A highly placed source in the education department, on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that another example of poor management is that the CEO had approved establishment of computer labs but no equipment had been purchased for them yet.

Furthermore, two employees of the department had been posted out after the establishment of the DEA on Jan 1, but they were drawing their salary from the Layyah office. The employees were Zafar Iqbal, senior stenographer, who had been posted as director of elementary education in Dera Ghazi Khan division; and Wahid Bukhsh Iqbal, an assistant posted at the DEO’s secondary office. This was sheer violation of the Punjab government rules as officials should get their salaries from the place of their posting.

Deputy Commissioner Wajid Ali Shah claimed that they had conducted an inquiry into the matter and will take action against the people responsible. He further said he had sent written requests to the government for re-authorisation of the lapsed funds and hoped they would be granted in the coming weeks.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2017