The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has said that nobody bothered to look at its billions of rupees audit observations about development projects. A representative of the AGP complained to the Chairman of Senate Sub-Committee on Finance here on Wednesday after the committee finished review of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) in Balochistan.
However, it was not clear whether official was complaining about the entire PSDP or development projects in Balochistan. We have audit observation about each and every project but nobody bothered to attend them, stated a representative of AGP. A copy of the audit paras was submitted by the official to the committee, which the chairman agreed to take up today (Thursday). The committee presided over by the Fateh Muhammad Hassani was given briefing by the officials of Planning Commission regarding implementation of the development projects in Balochistan.
A senior official of the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) said that the government has also been paying a considerable amount as commitment charges on foreign loans largely due to failure of financial closure of the development projects. The committee sought details of the additional amount as commitment charges or penalty paid to the lenders so far, which the official assured the committee would be submitted today. Additional Secretary Planning and Development Division said that it was the prerogative of the provincial governments and ministries to suggest the name of executing agency to the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) along with projects to be given preference.
Another official said that there feasibility study, which is mandatory for the social sector projects up to Rs 300 million and infrastructure projects of Rs 1 billion, was not conducted. An official of the planning Commission confessed before the committee that it was not following mandatory time period of six weeks for approval of the project and development projects are approved at a day's notice for reasons known to everyone, which he obviously was referring to the political pressure.
He said that delay in land acquisition, hiring of consultant, and delay in release of funds as well as management are some of the problems associated with development projects which were leading to cost overrun and causing delay in their completion. The committee proposed the planning commission that development projects, which require land acquisition, should not be approved unless land is acquired. The committee also recommended that Planning Commission must take into consideration the funds allocation factor before approving development projects to minimize Rs 1.9 billion through forward of development projects.
Briefing on water related projects of Balochistan, officials of Planning Commission stated that a project of 100 small dams was initiated in the province at a cost of Rs 2.46 billion and 20 projects were started in the first phase. The projects being executed by the Ministry of Water and Power and implemented by the provincial irrigation department has completed construction of 15 small dams whereas three are under construction and two could not be started due to dispute among the locals. The committee was further informed that under the 2nd Phase, construction of 26 small dams started with a cost of 4.6 billion and tender were floated. The federal government has released Rs 440 million for the projects from an allocation of Rs 700 million made in the budget for the current fiscal, they added.
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