- Metropolitan corporation demanded Rs12 bn non-development budget for the year 2017-18
The finance ministry in its recent meeting didn’t consider the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad’s (MCI) demand of Rs 12 billion non-development budget for the financial year 2017-18 so it is highly unlikely for the corporation to get any non-development budget.
The MCI could not be given non-development budget without having the schedule of establishment (SOE).
The schedule of establishment is details of employees, their grades etc. However, because of court cases, the employees of those departments, which have been devolved to the MCI from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), the MCI was unable to finalise the schedule of establishment.
“What can we do? A large number of employees got stay orders, so under the current circumstance, we could not finalise schedule of establishment,” said an official of the MCI, who requested not to be named.
The sources said that it seems like the mayor along with his team is not interested enough to get development and non-development budget for the upcoming fiscal year too.
“Recently, the finance ministry, during a committee meeting informed the MCI representatives that they don’t have the schedule and thus could not be given a non-development budget,” said a source, who attended the meeting.
The MCI could not get approval for development schemes from the concerned ministries so the development budget is also in doldrums so far, said the source.
The MCI, which was formed following November 30, 2015, elections, so far, could not attract the federal government as, during the last financial year, it could not get a single penny for development projects.
However, recently after much hue and cry, the finance ministry released 2.5 billion rupees for non-development expenditure. In the absence of any regular budget, the MCI has been getting a loan from the CDA, which is already facing a financial crunch.
“Because of court cases, there are some issues, which are to be resolved before notifying schedule of establishment, though we are being told that funds could not be allocated for MCI in the upcoming financial year, but we can ask for special grant,” said an official of MCI while talking to Pakistan Today.
Last year, because of a delay in its notification the MCI could not seek proposals for development funds for the financial year 2016-17. It is relevant to note here so far, union councils are not yet formed as there are still no secretaries and technical staff to guide the chairmen in most of the Union Councils.
When contacted, CDA/MCI Spokesperson Mazhar Hussain said that efforts are being made to resolve this issue. “ Yes, there are some issues related to MCI budget, but efforts are afoot by the Mayor cum CDA Chairman Sheikh Anser Aziz to get the budget for the local government in the upcoming financial year 2017-18,” he said.
It is to be noted that this will be the second consecutive year for the local government to run without any budget, which may increase difficulties for the corporation to do its job efficiently, including municipal services, developing streets, roads, and rehabilitate parks, grounds and to resolve decade-old sanitation and water-related issues in the federal capital.