Although last year’s floods forced the federal and provincial governments to significantly slash their development expenditures, even the available uplift funds were not fully utilised by the provincial governments – thanks to red tape and bureaucratic lethargy. According to official statistics, the PPP-led Sindh government, which claims to have incurred the most of flood-related damages amounting to Rs 464 billion (45 percent), has not been able to make thorough use of the allocated development funds for the past three years.
With the next budget date approaching, the provincial government deems it appropriate – perhaps politically – to boast about leaving 23 to 44 percent or at least Rs 83 billion of the available developmental funds, unused during its rule. ‘Three Years’ Performance’ of the Sindh government, presented during Thursday’s Sindh Assembly sitting by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, revealed that even in the ongoing 11th month of the current fiscal year, the provincial departments are yet to utilise Rs 34 billion of the Rs 77 billion allocated under the revised Provincial Annual Development Programme (ADP).
The initial budget allocation under ADP fiscal year (FY) 2011 was Rs 115 billion but was later cut down to Rs 77 billion owing to fiscal constraints stemming from floods and subsequent rehabilitation requirements. However, the past records also paint a gloomy picture of the provincial governments’ ability to make use of uplift funds. The Sindh government, like other provinces, loves to allocate mammoth amounts for projects – apparently to take political mileage. Even during FY-09 and FY-10, it had not been able to utilise Rs 18 billion out of Rs 77 billion and Rs 31 billion out of Rs 97.905 billion, respectively.
The government report criticised the Health, Education, Agriculture, Culture, Mines and Minerals, Information Technology, Auqaf, Environment and other smaller departments for unsatisfactory budgetary releases and expenditures. According to the report, Health, Education, Agriculture, Culture, and Mines and Minerals departments had respectively utilised 50, 54, 25, 25 and 15 percent of the allocated funds until April end.
It was for the same reason that on Thursday, Shah, indirectly, blasted the ill-reputed bureaucracy of at least nine provincial departments for their ‘disappointing’ performance concerning the usage of development funds. “This is slightly a disappointing situation and we are putting in efforts to improve release and expenditure (of funds),” stated the report given to journalists in the provincial legislature.
However, the chief minister, while reading out the report on the assembly floor, replaced the word ‘disappointing’ with ‘lower’ besides using neutral expressions to avoid a possible media trial. The report, however, said: “The expenditure of following departments needs to be urgently improved… other smaller departments… will also have to speed up implementation.” “Hopefully, we would achieve the (development expenditure) targets we made for the year (FY11) during the remaining two and a half months,” the chief minister told the lawmakers.
