Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR: The reconstruction of the buildings of government schools badly damaged by the 2010 floods has either slowed to a snail’s pace or stopped altogether due to the nonpayment of funds to contractors by the Provincial Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA), say the relevant officials.
The officials told Lead Pakistan that after pledging $25 million, the United States Agency for International Development had been funding the reconstruction of the schools through the PaRRSA.
They said the reconstruction of 59 school buildings was unlikely to complete within the stipulated time as the PaRRSA didn’t make the due payments to contractors.
The officials said the USAID high-ups had repeatedly expressed concerns about the slow work on and lack of interest in the project on part of the PaRRSA.
“I submitted a bill of two million rupees to the project director’s office two months ago but the money has yet to be paid,” a contractor told Dawn. The contractor, who is working on the rebuilding of Swat schools, said the project director had categorically informed contractors about the ‘denial of the release of funds’ by the PaRRSA.
According to the official documents, the communication and works department’s section handling the PaRRSA/USAID projects has formally put up a demand of Rs200 million funds to the PaRRSA on April 20, 2016, for payment to contractors.
“—it is therefore requested to release funds as per the breakup to avoid delay in construction activities and the schedule target could be achieved,” reveal a document.
The officials said of the total sought-after funds, the PaRRSA released Rs41.6 million only and that, too, in two installments though the USAID didn’t face the funds’ shortage.
“The contractors are worried about how to continue construction as they have already utilised their available money,” a contractor told Dawn.
The documents show for example, only 1.01 per cent of work has been done on the Government Primary School, Umare Wala, Dera Ismail Khan.
According to the officials, the reconstruction of the school building began around four months ago and was to complete by Nov 1, 2017.
They said if the construction continued at the current pace, the school won’t be rebuilt in the next two years.
The officials said the Government Girls Primary School, Shalmano Kotkai, Shangla, was to be rebuilt by Sept 2017 but just 2.26 per cent of the work had been completed in the four months. They said the same was the case with other schools and that the completion of work was above 30 per cent in a few schools only.
When contacted, PaRRSA project manager Sajid Imran said the USAID had linked the release of funds with the successful execution of different construction stages.
“We request the USAID for the release of funds when the contractors submit their payment bills to us,” he said.
Mr Imran said four days ago, the PaRRSA released Rs90 million to the communication and works department for payment to contractors.
He said the construction of schools was delayed due to the changes in project implementation letter done by the USAID, which was sort of the memorandum of understanding. He said the payment to contractors was based on the reimbursement mode under which contractors were released funds after the completion of the required work.
“Sometimes, contractors file bills but payments are denied after something is found to be missing in the sequence of construction on the inspection of the buildings,” he said.
The USAID signed a $25 million agreement with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in 2012 to repair and rebuild flood-damaged schools.
Despite the lapse of over four years, the $25 million grant wasn’t utilised for the construction of the buildings of the schools, whose students get education either in tents or rented buildings.
