Hiring consultants for projects costing up to Rs70m no more a must
ZULFIQAR ALI — PUBLISHED JAN 13, 2015 06:24AM
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PESHAWAR: In a visible U-turn on its governance policy, the Pakistan Tehreek-i- Insaf-led coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has waived the condition of hiring consultants for projects costing up to Rs70 million to expedite utilisation of development funds allocated under the Annual Development Programme 2014-15.
Senior minister Inayatullah Khan admitted that utilisation of the ADP was slow due to lack of interest on the part of private consultants and lack of capacity of line departments.
He said that professionals were not available in the province, while consultants from outside didn’t come here and therefore, the utilisation of funds had slowed down.
“Now, the government has decided in principle to exempt development schemes worth Rs70 million from private consultants,” he told Dawn.
Move comes in light of poor ADP spending
Under the new guidelines, the minister said that development schemes costing over Rs70 million would be advertised twice for hiring private consultants.
In case consultants don’t show interest, then such projects will also be executed without consultants, he added.
Official sources said that decision regarding waiving condition of hiring consultants for projects was taken keeping in view poor spending of the ADP. The government has spent only 12.7 per cent of the total ADP in first two quarters of the six months.
The Centre for Governance and Public Accountability, a civil society organisation working for promotion of public accountability and good governance, said that out of total allocation of Rs140.23 billion, only Rs17.86 billion, 12.7 per cent of the total ADP, had been utilised till January 2, 2015. The government has released about Rs64 billion under the ADP.
Like current ADP, utilisation of development funds during previous fi nancial year also remained poor because line departments could not hire consultants. The department concerned could not execute a single new scheme in the first two quarters in the previous financial year.
The government had introduced the concept of consultants last year to ensure transparency and quality of work in the development schemes. All line departments were directed to hire private consultants.
The CGPA in a statement asked the provincial government to expedite the utilisation of development funds for improving social indicators in the province. It said that if this trend continued, the provincial government would not be able to utilise whole ADP which could result in lapse of development funds.
The CGPA analysis of the utilisation of development budget for the first six months of fiscal year 2014-15 depicts that only 6.7 per cent elementary and secondary education development budget was utilise in first six months of the current financial year.
Out of total Rs19.9 billion development budget for elementary and secondary education, according to the CGPA only Rs1.34 was utilised. Despite the fact it said almost 2.5 million children were out of schools in the province the provincial government inability to spend development budgets efficiently and effectively was adding to the gravity of the education challenges.
The utilisation of development funds in other sectors is also very slow. Allocation for roads is Rs17.25 billion in the ADP and concerned department has used 2.53 billion which is 14.7 per cent of the total development budget.
Regional development which covers some discretionary funds was allocated Rs17.08 billion and actual utilisation is only 2.41 billion. Health is one of the major components of the ADP and provincial government had allocated Rs11.29 billion in current ADP, but the concerned department has spent only Rs1.1 billion.
The CGPA statement said that ADP utilisation in other sectors also remained low.
The spending of ADP in agriculture sector was 11.7 per cent, Auqaf and Religious Affairs 7.8 per cent, buildings 19.5 per cent, drinking water and sanitation 11.9 per cent, energy and power 20.6 per cent in the ongoing ADP.
After health and education sectors, environment was third on the priority list of the PTI election manifesto, but the situation in the environment sector is below the mark. The utilisation of funds in environment sector is only 7.5 per cent.
The utilisation of funds for finance is 15.5 per cent, food 5.6 per cent, forestry 25.6 per cent, higher education 19 per cent, home 13.9 per cent, housing 6.7 per cent, industries 3 per cent, information 19.6 per cent, labour 0.7 per cent, law and justice 12.8 per cent, mines and minerals 5.8 per cent, population welfare 8.9 per cent, pro poor special initiatives 6.7 per cent, research and development 12.9 per cent, social welfare 9.5 per cent, sports, tourism and archeology 23 per cent, science technology and information technology four per cent, transport 3.3 per cent, urban development 14.9 per cent, water 13.7 per cent, while no fund has been utilised under the District ADP and Relief Rehabilitation, according to CGPA.
Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2015
