The remarks of the minister came during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on SAFRON who lambasted the FATA Secretariat and the political administrations of various tribal agencies for their apathy towards the plight of the hapless people of the FATA. The minister threatened to resign in protest if the reservations regarding transparency and pace of development works are not addressed.
The committee chaired by Senator Hilal-ur-Rehman expressed its anger over the alarming state of affairs in the FATA, especially the lack of utilization of development budget. The committee noted with serious concern the absence of senior officials from FATA Secretariat, especially the Additional Chief Secretary Captain Sikandar Qayyum (retd), which compelled some senators to stage a walkout from the meeting.
Briefing the committee, the secretary Planning and Development informed the panel that the total utilization of funds up till now stands at paltry Rs 3,052 million against releases of first quarter of Rs 4,800 million, making the utilization at 64 percent against releases. The senators said that almost half the budgetary year has passed and the second quarter funds, worth another Rs 4.8 billion, are yet to be disbursed to the line departments for carrying out various development initiatives in the FATA. However, the secretary blamed federal Finance Division for the delay at which the forum indicated the slow pace of utilization by FATA Secretariat to be the main cause behind this delay. It noted that it took the FATA Secretariat five months to utilize a mere Rs 3 billion of the first quarter releases, which is alarming especially when it is the final year of the current assemblies.
The secretary P&D further stated that as per initial development calendar PC-1s of the 499 new and unapproved schemes were to be submitted by the 1st week of September to Planning and Development Department FATA. He said that these development schemes were to be approved by fourth week of September and then within two weeks of approval of a scheme the tendering process was to be completed and contracts awarded for mobilization of contractors.
The committee, however, observed that the progress was abysmal. It noted that of the 499 new initiative schemes earmarked for approval in various sectors, only 208 were approved by development forums so far. The slowest progress in approval was recorded for the education sector in which out of 98, only 22 schemes had been approved so far. Water supply was also a least priority in the water scarce region of FATA as only five schemes out of a total of 31 new drinking water supply schemes stood approved by FATA Secretariat so far. This was followed by health sector in which 14 projects were approved out of the total 52 schemes, in irrigation 16 projects were approved out of 38 schemes and in communication sector 26 projects were approved out of 65.
In terms of agencies, the worst performing were South Waziristan Agency, where only eight development projects were approved out of 74 followed by Bajaur where 6 schemes approved out of 22 and then Mohmand Agency where 10 schemes were approved out of the total 31 schemes. The chairman pointed out the submission of incomplete data to the list of pending schemes owing to issues of site selection stuck up at the agency and district levels. To which the secretary referred the forum towards the additional political agents and heads of line departments who were present in the meeting. However, the committee members noted that the additional chief secretary should take responsibility for all the tiers of FATA falling under him and not refer matters to subordinate officials.
Since the additional chief secretary was absent from the meeting; therefore, a follow-up meeting on the pending issues will be convened in the next two weeks. In terms of percentage utilization against first quarter releases health, drinking water supply, social welfare and housing sectors stood at 45 percent, 44 percent, 41 percent and 53 percent respectively. This indicated the lack of focus on basic service delivery and livelihood sectors at FATA, the committee noted. However, the senators pointed out had FATA Secretariat secured the second quarter releases on time, which should have been secured by the mid-October, the utilization against releases would be hovering around 20 to 30 percent in all the 16 sectors of the FATA development portfolio.
Senator Saleh Shah lamented that due to ineffective checks on officials in Finance department FATA, C&W (Works Department) and the line departments, the pace of fiscal expenditure is slow. He stated that the real reason for slow utilization was bureaucratic red tape which left the contractors and public with no choice but to grease the palms of officials sitting in FATA Secretariat, line departments and the Political Agent Offices.
The committee also referred to two schemes worth Rs 770 million approved by FATA Secretariat and decided to examine the package based initiatives at the subsequent meeting.
Senator Hilal-ur-Rehman and other senators reminded the secretary P&D and officials from SAFRON that it was due to the joint efforts of the FATA parliamentarians and the governor KP that the federal government had increased the FATA portfolio from Rs 19 billion in 2016-17 to Rs 24.5 billion this year. But it appeared that the officials in FATA have no interest in letting the dividends of these efforts by public representatives' trickle down to the destitute, displaced and despairing masses of FATA, the committee observed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017