PESHAWAR: The budget for the largest Local Government (LG) – capital metropolitan government – is marred by infightings and confrontation among Elected Representatives and LG Department officials over fund allocation.
The proposed budget for the Peshawar Capital Metropolitan Government couldn’t be tabled after Rs1.78 billion was allocated to director general of the LG Department and only Rs50 million were set aside for the mayor.
According to sources in the Peshawar Capital Metropolitan Government, the budget preparation process was started several weeks ago, but, there has been no consensus between the Director General and the Peshawar Mayor on funds allocations.
The Local Government Department sources said that not only Peshawar is having difficulty in the funds allocations to the LG elected representatives, but the elected representatives in the entire province is unable to make an effective funds allocations.
The sources said that the Peshawar mayor has raised an objection to keeping just Rs50 million for the Mayor while Rs1.78 billion for Director General Capital Metropolitan. The mayor was of the view that only local government representatives are authorized to use the funds and civil servants has no right to utilise public funds.
There has been a deadlock over the allocation of funds for the past several weeks due to which the budget preparation process has been suspended. The office affairs have also come to a standstill because of the non-approval of the budget even after July. The delay may create a number of technical issues while there is also a fear that the Capital Metropolitan would also face a severe financial crisis.
