The Punjab government’s extravagance has increased manifold over the past few years, putting to question its much-touted “austerity drive” claiming to save up maximum finances, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif constituted an austerity committee to rationalise expenses under various project heads and save finances. The measures espoused by it included a bar on using air conditioners in government offices before 11am, limiting the number of vehicles used by officials and slashing project allowances.
However, despite all those claims, documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that the government spending on entertainment and gifts for the dignitaries and VVIPs has snowballed from Rs 3.7 million in 2008 to Rs 17.5 million in 2011.
The documents reveal further that the entertainment expense in 2009 and 2010 were Rs 7.7 million and Rs 11.6 million respectively, showing a constant increase in the spending under the entertainment heads. Sources within the Punjab government confirmed that those expenses had been incurred by government on the entourage of VVIPs and other dignitaries.
“The cost of one gift to a foreign dignitary at times runs in thousands of rupees and is given by the chief minister…if a direction is coming straight from the chief executive, no official can dare to disobey,” they added. A senior official, seeking anonymity, said the government needed to rationalise such expenses that clearly showed the dual standards of the provincial regime.
“On the one hand the government has put a bar on the use of air conditioners to save finances, while on the other its spending on entertainment of entourage of foreign dignitaries has been multiplying over the years which is an expense that can easily be avoided…The government should include this in the austerity meeting as well to prove its seriousness in saving finances and following an austerity drive,” the official added.
