PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has spent only Rs249 million out of Rs1.5bn allocated for various projects of Science and Technology Department in the annual development program for the current financial year.
The provincial government has spent some funds on eight development projects of the Department of Science and Technology, while other projects have not been provided any funds because of shortage. The department has spent Rs124.3mn on the Haripur Digital City project, Rs2.2 million the KP Digital Governance Initiatives project, Rs8.9mn on the Pilot Citizen Facilitation Center project in Peshawar, Rs90.888mn in skills Center Mardan, Rs3.44 million on improvement and maintenance of S&T department, 15.2 million rupees for construction of provincial science and Technology system, Rs4.467mn on capacity building of the department in latest technologies.
According to sources, most of the projects have not received any funding from the Finance Department. Similarly, funds were also withdrawn from some projects and were diverted to districts of the PTI leaders. According to sources of finance department, 90% of KP budget depends on funds received from the federal government.
The provincial government has formally communicated the financial issues of the province and delay in completion of annual development projects, but the government has not yet received any satisfactory response from the central government. The caretaker KP government has also demanded the federal finance minister to release the province’s share of over Rs200bn.
According to sources, due to financial difficulties of the province, not only the development projects were delayed, but also salaries of the government employees are not being paid on time.
