Chitral Times Report
PESHAWAR: A meeting held here on Tuesday with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan in the chair, reviewed progress on Third Quarter of current Annual Development Program ( ADP) including the allocation, release and upto date expenditure of of developmental funds, monitoring and evaluation reports generated on developmental schemes in addition to review the zero draft of the upcoming ADP. Chief Secretary Dr Kazim Niaz, Additional Chief Secretary Shakeel Qadir and administrative secretaries of provincial departments attended the meeting. While briefing the forum about the release and utilization of funds for the third quarter of ADP , it was told funds to the tune of 124 billion were released for the third quarter and so far 62 percent of funds was utilized against the released amount.
The forum was further informed that during the second quarter, only 51 percent of the released funds was utilised and during the third quarter 62 percent was utilization having an improvement of 11 percent during the last three months which is quite satisfactory.
The meeting made a comparative analysis of funds release and utilization ratio during the last five years and it was told that the ratio of fund release and utilization remained at the highest during the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-2.
Briefing about the approval status of the developmental projects, the meeting was informed that a total of 11 projects were approved by Central Development Working Party, 252 projects were approved by Provincial Working Development Party whereas 112 projects were approved by Departmental Development Working Party during the 3rd quarter of current financial year. The authorities also told that a total of 621 developmental projects out of total 800 were due for completion and would be completed till the end of this financial year. Similarly, it was informed that 2246 monitoring reports were generated so far during the ongoing financial year regarding developmental schemes and shared with the concerned departments adding that feedback on 1586 reports had also been received.
With regard to sectoral progress on during the third quarter, it was told that Industry Department topped the list with 100 percent utilization of funds against the releases, Energy Department stood second with 82 percent utilization whereas Transport Departments stood on third with and 79 percent utilization of funds released during the third quarter of this Annual Development Program. Regarding the release of developmental funds during the third quarter to individual departments it was informed that Rs. 10.43 billion was released for the various developmental projects of Elementary & Secondary Education, Rs. 6.8 billion for Higher Education, Rs. 15 billion to Health sector, Rs. 20 billion to Road sector, Rs. 11 billion to irrigation sector and Rs. 5.7 billion were released for different developmental projects of sports and Tourism Department whereas an accumulative funds worth Rs. 124 billion were released for all the developmental projects during the third quarter.
Addressing the participants of the meeting, the chair termed the status of fund utilization during the third quarter as satisfactory but however he stressed the need to further improve it so that 100 percent utilization of development funds is ensured by the end of the financial year. He said that timely completion of development projects was one of the top priority areas of his government and directed the administrative heads of the departments for necessary steps to ensure physical progress on the developmental projects so that they are completed within the stipulated time period and public benefit them without any delay.
