Peshawar
There has been remarkable improvement in the utilization of development fund in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa owing to the incumbent provincial government’s decision to release cent percent developmental funds in the very beginning of financial year. During the first quarter of the current financial year, the overall ratio of utilization of developmental funds has been 38 percent against the released funds.
There has been 425 percent increase in the utilization of developmental funds during the first quarter of the current financial year as compared to that of the last financial year.
This was told in the first quarter review meeting of provincial ADP 2021-22 held in Peshawar on Tuesday.
The meeting was given a detail briefing on the overall situation of allocation, release and utilization of funds during the first quarter of the current financial year.
The meeting was informed that a total of 2280 projects having a total cost of 1713 billion rupees had been reflected in the ADP of the current financial year with an allocation of Rs. 210 billion. It was further informed that 219 High Priority Projects worth Rs. 331 billion have been identified out of the total developmental portfolio which would be completed during the next two years adding that a total fund of Rs. 73 billion have been allocated for the timely completion of these High Priority Projects, whereas utilization of funds against the High Priority Projects remained 42 percent during the first quarter.
Regarding the approval status of new projects, the forum was informed that out of the 458 new projects, 153 projects have been approved by the relevant forums.
It was told that so far 1439 monitoring reports had been generated on developmental projects during the current financial year, and feedbacks on 1090 of them had been received from the concerned departments. With regard to the Due for Completion (DFC) projects it was apprised that 670 projects worth Rs. 170 billion were near completion for which a total fund of Rs. 60 billion have been allocated in the current budget. It was told that during the first quarter of the current financial year, transport sector remained on top of the list with 74 percent fund utilization followed by road sector with 67 percent fund utilization and energy sector with 61 percent fund utilization.
The chief minister, while expressing dissatisfaction on the overall approval status of new projects, directed all the departments to get the PC-Is of their respective projects cleared from the relevant forums by the end of this month; and said that another review meeting of the first quarter would be held in next month and strict action would be taken against the concerned administrative secretaries in case of noncompliance.
Mahmood Khan also directed the concerned authorities to further strengthen the Monitoring and Evaluation Cell in order to effectively monitor the developmental projects further directing them to take appropriate action against the concerned government officials in the light of monitoring reports.
