Government could not spend allocated amount in education and health sectors

The tall claims by the incumbent of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) government to bring about revolutionary changes in various sectors especially in education and health in the federal capital are proving to be superficial, as only a meager amount has been utilised out of the multi billions rupees allocated under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) 2016-17.

Education and health have never remained in the priority list of the PML-N government; however, ironically, a major chunk of the funds have been earmarked for the two sectors under PSDP 2016-17.

The government has made major announcements relating to education and health, and the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif also started taking special interest in the onset of the government in the two sectors, but it seemed that it was just a political drama, because no work has been done in the capital during the last year.

According to the documents available with Pakistan Today, government has released a total of Rs 3, 562.237 million for various projects under the PSDP 2016-17; however, the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) could only utilise a meager amount of Rs582.442 million during the out-going financial year. Resultanly, the ministry had to surrender the huge amount of Rs2979.795 million.

The documents showed that a major chunk of the fund amounting to Rs2979.795 million could not be utilised which showed ministry’s ineptness and incompetence.

The government’s main emphasis was on the education and health reforms and a major chunk of funds were allocated for the projects relating to the two sectors; however the ministry could not spend the allocated amounts.

“An amount of Rs2059.457 million has been allocated in the budget 2016-17 for 11 projects of education; however only Rs243.286 million were utilised and the remaining Rs1816.171 were not utilised ,” the documents showed.

Only Rs1000 million has been earmarked for the renovation/rehabilitation of physical infrastructure of 200-educational institutions under Prime Minister’s education sector reforms program in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Islamabad; however not a penny has been utilised, so the ministry had to surrender the whole amount.

Similarly, the documents disclosed that there were a total of 11 projects relating to health only for which an amount of Rs 717.292 million were earmarked; however only Rs. 206.899 million were utilised while a huge amount of Rs. 510.393 could also not be utilized.

Besides, a total of Rs751.132 million has been allocated for the four project of Capital Development Authority (CDA); but huge sum of Rs 628.891 million has been surrendered by the ministry, because only Rs122.241 million has been spent during the out-going fiscal year.

Moreover, the documents showed that Rs34.356 has been allocated for the two projects relating to special education of which Rs10.016 has been utilized and the ministry had to surrender the remaining Rs24.340 million.

The government’s failure to utilize the funds would have far-reaching negative impacts on the ruling party, because people of the federal capital were facing huge problems due to the absence of education and health facilities in the metropolitan.

The government neither built a single school nor a hospital during the last four year despite massive increase in population of the federal capital. It could drastically affect PML-N’s votebank in the upcoming general elections.