KARACHI   -   Administrator Karachi Iftikhar Ali Shallwani on Monday said that the issue of shortage of funds, obstructing release of salaries and pensions of employees of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), would be resolved soon.
“We have requested the Sindh government to increase allocation of funds for the KMC, and hopefully the request will be accepted,” he said, and added, “Departmental heads will be replaced if they fail to achieve revenue targets. Meetings to review revenue targets would be held on weekly basis.”
Shallwani was addressing the officers of Finance Department here at the KMC office. 
Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed Saifur Rehman, Finance Advisor Afaq Saeed, Senior Director Finance Riaz Khatri, Director Budget Mehmood Baig, Director Administration Finance Nasir Mehmood and other concerned officials were also present on the occasion.
Shallwani was informed that the KMC had been facing shortage of funds which was affecting the timely release of salaries and pensions to its staff and retired employees.
Release of lesser amounts from the provincial government in monthly grants and shortfall in revenue targets were main reasons for the shortage of funds, Shallwani was told.
The concerned officials informed the Administrator that KMC received Rs587.705 million from the Sindh government in the head of matching grant of OZT and Grant in Aid Salary, out of which Rs 157.705 million were for OZT and Rs 430 million were for Grant in Aid for salaries.
He was told that Rs693.235 million were required for the payment of KMC and DMCs employees’ salaries.
It was told in the meeting that the amount of pension of KMC and DMCs’ retired employees amounted to Rs306.489 million. The total shortfall being faced by the KMC for releasing salaries and pensions each month was Rs260.198 million, the administrator was briefed.
Shallwani was informed that total Rs 3430.964 million were still to be paid to 5,735 claimants who were either retired employees of KMC, DMCs and District Council or families of the deceased employees. The retired employees and their families were seeking the amount since 2015-16, he was told.
Besides, the KMC also faces shortage of resources mainly because of funds shortage. “ Rs 451.857 million are to be paid to employees in the head of fire risk allowance, Rs 255.713 million in the head of supplementary salaries, and Rs 447.904 million that had to be given to the employees after 15 percent increment in salaries,” the Administrator was informed.
Speaking on the occasion, Shallwani said in order to make any organisation stronger, it was essential that its finance department is made stronger.
He said that the timely payment of salaries and pensions were amongst his priorities and issues in this regard would be resolved soon.