PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government departments spent only Rs11.3 billion from the Rs23.4 billion development funds released during the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Details of the annual development programme’s first quarter review available with Dawn show that the finance department released Rs23.4 billion development funds to the government departments from July 1 to Oct 1 and only 48 per cent of them were spent.

Also, the funds amounting to Rs6.8 billion from the donor-funded component of the ADP were released to the government departments and Rs4.5 billion of them was utilised.

The documents show that the excise and taxation, drainage and water supply scheme, home, water, Auqaf and Haj, industries, housing and transport departments were the top performers in the utilisation of funds released under the provincial component of the ADP.

Documents show zero utilisation of Rs3.78bn merged districts’ funding

The excise and taxation department fully utilised Rs10 million released amount during the first quarter, followed by DWSS which spend Rs429 million out of 558 million released, achieving utilisation rate of around 77 per cent, while the home and water departments reported over 74 per cent utilisation rate.

The local government, roads, sports and tourism, urban development, social welfare environment, health and forestry departments utilised 53-41 per cent of the released funds.

The local government department utilised Rs287 million out of Rs543 million released during the first quarter, while the road sector managed to spend Rs1.6 billion out of Rs3.1 billion released funds and tourism and sports department spend Rs274 million out of Rs529 million.

The elementary and secondary education (E&SE), agriculture, food, higher education, finance, mines and mineral and law departments consumed 26-37 per cent of the released funds.

The E&SE department spent Rs867 million from Rs2.3 billion released during the first fiscal, agriculture department Rs255 million from Rs679 million and the higher education Rs237 million from Rs649 million.

In addition, the population welfare, buildings, information, labour, science and information technology, energy and board of revenue achieved the funds utilisation rate of 1.9-24 per cent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The building sector utilised Rs38 million out of Rs157 million released during the quarter, population welfare Rs12 million out of Rs71 million, information Rs1 million out of Rs9 million, labour Rs1 million out of Rs13 million, and science and information technology department Rs5 million out of Rs57 million.

The energy department utilised Rs3 million out of Rs133 million released funds, while the board of revenue recorded the lowest expenditure rate as it spend Rs2 million out of Rs97 million during the quarter.

Rs128 million out of Rs46 billion, district component of the ADP were released during the period, which were completely utilised.

The documents show that Rs4 billion was released from merged districts ADP and of Rs1.47 billion were utilised during the first quarter, while Rs4.1 billion were released from donor funded component, which were completely utilised.

During the first quarter, the government released Rs3.778 billion for merged districts under the accelerated implementation programme but the money showed zero utilisation.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2019