PESHAWAR - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has utilized 99 percent of the released funds for development projects during financial year 2019-20 under Annual Development Programme (ADP) while it made 100 percent utilization of released funds under the ADP of merged tribal districts.
During previous two financial years, funds utilization against the released amount remained 99 percent whereas no funds were lapsed during the said period. The overall performance of the provincial departments remained satisfactory despite challenging circumstance. Performance of Agriculture Department regarding implementation of development schemes was on top with 86 scores while performance of Local Government and Public Health Engineering Department remained second and third respectively.
This was told in a meeting held here under the chairmanship of KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to review progress on ADP. Besides concerned rovincial ministers the meeting was also attended by chief secretary, additional chief secretary and administrative secretaries of all departments.
The meeting was briefed on different aspects of Annual Development Programme. It was told that overall development portfolio of the province during the last financial year was Rs.533 billion. During previous financial year Rs.55 billion had been utilized on development projects in the merged areas which was 100 percent of the released funds.
It was informed that during previous year, a total of 1323 monitoring reports were generated on annual developmental projects in settled districts while 227 reports were generated on projects in newly merged districts.
The forum was informed that some 249 development projects stood approved under the ADP for settled districts while 88 projects were approved for merged districts. Similarly, 122 uplift projects were approved for merged districts under the Accelerated Implementation Programme (AIP). It was decided in the meeting that completion of ongoing development schemes would be given top priority in the ADP of next financial year and efforts would be made to allocate 90 percent of ADP funds for the completion of ongoing developmental schemes.
The forum also decided that in the light of the guidelines issued by Planning Commission of Pakistan, preparations for next year ADP would be started at the earliest for which all departments would have to submit project profiles of their development schemes to the provincial planning and development department well in time. It was also decided that without proper PC-1, no development scheme would be included in the ADP.
The forum was informed that quantifiable indicators were being developed for all departments to evaluate and determine their performance with regard to the implementation of development schemes.
Chief Minister Mahmood Khan directed the provincial departments to ensure timely approval of all their schemes and said that all departments should get formal approval of their development schemes reflected in the current ADP by 30th October this year failing which action would be taken against the concerned administrative secretary.