The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has utilised only 45 per cent of total Annual Development Programme (ADP) funds allocated to the province with less than a month left till the close of fiscal year 2014-2015 (FY14-15), a press release from the Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) revealed.
Of the total KP ADP allocation of Rs139.8 billion, only Rs62.9bn had been utilised as of June 5, 2015 ─ despite the release of Rs 124.1 billion in ADP funds.
Education:
Only Rs 9.3 billion of the total development budget of Rs 19.9 billion for elementary and secondary education had been utilised as of June 5.
The CGPA says 2.5 million children are out of school in the province, and that the KP government’s inability to spend the development budget is exacerbating the situation.
Roads:
The utilisation of the budget allocation for roads in 2014-2015 was Rs 17.3 billion, of which Rs 7.4 billion or 43pc was utilised by June 5.
Regional development:
Approximately 41pc of the regional development budget or Rs 6.7 billion of Rs 16.4 billion was utilised. The budget covers some discretionary funds.
Health:
Of the Rs 11.2 billion allocated for health in the ADP 2014-2015, only Rs 3.7 billion or 34pc of the total allocation was utilised by June 5. The CGPA demanded that more funds for the provision of medical equipment and medicine to hospitals be allocated, which it said could improve the performance of KP’s health sector.
The CGPA noted that although the provincial government had done well at expediting development during the fourth quarter, 55pc of funds for the year were yet to be utilised.
The CGPA urged the KP government to expedite utilisation of budget funds under the ADP in order to improve social indicators in the province and to avoid transfer of allocated money for public service delivery to next year.
