Punjab finance minister vows to address opposition issues

LAHORE: Provincial Finance Minister Dr Ayesha Ghous Pasha Friday concluded the post-Budget 2015-16 discussion in the Punjab Assembly with assurance that the recommendations of the opposition benches would be addressed and important decisions on the government spending were made by the political leadership contrary to popular opinion that the bureaucracy is single-handedly involved in its planning.
Addressing the PA after the conclusion of the four-day period allotted for discussion of Punjab Annual Budget 2015-16, she clarified that the budget had been prepared taking into consideration the recommendations made in the pre-budget period and no bureaucrat had envisioned the Metrobus project or the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Park in Bahawalpur, thus it was unfair to blame ministers for heavy dependence on officers. Dr Ayesha insisted that the recommendations made by the parliamentary resource mobilization committee, academia, and parliamentarians on both sides were key in budget decision-making. Education has been allocated Rs 310 billion, Rs 31 billion earmarked for health sector, Rs 19 billion for agriculture sector, Rs 88 billion for law and order, Rs 21 billion for energy generation, Rs 31 billion for water supply, Rs 35 billion for women and minorities in province, and Rs 11 billion for Saaf Paani project, she informed the House.
To improve service delivery, she said a Citizen Feedback System had been devised by the Punjab Government thereby giving citizens an opportunity to give their feedback to relevant departments using their mobile phones. She maintained that a state-of-the-art and centralized performance management system (Zimmedar Shehri) has been launched in this regard to receive complaints and feedback, all district administrations and DCO officers have been linked to this system.
Dr Ayesha acknowledging the recommendations made regarding local government in Punjab stressed that this was a priority for the government and that a generous sum of money had been allocated for it. She assured that the government is interested in establishing a provincial finance commission and award as recommended by several parliamentarians. Responding to the two-hour speech made by Leader of Opposition PTI MPA Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed in the PA, she insisted that the talk of budget underutilization was contrary to reality and in fact the departments of school education, special education, literacy, health, water supply, local government, roads had utilized their entire funds allotted last year and in fact had used more funds than allotted in the Annual Development Budget 2015-16. She informed the House that in the past fiscal year till May 31, 2015, some 81 per cent of ADB funds had been spent, whereas 77.54 per cent of 2013-14 development funds were spent in that year which proceeded to reach 92 per cent by June 2014.
She predicted that in keeping with this upward trend more than 90 per cent of ADB 2015-16 would be utilized. It is important to note, stated the Finance Minister on Friday that agriculture had utilized 93 per cent of the ADB 2014-15, education 93.37 per cent, higher education 87 per cent, special education 100 per cent. Talking of the protests staged by blind persons in the province, she assured that Rs 2 billion were allocated for Punjab Social Protection Authority would also be spent on their welfare and efforts are underway for their employment in the private and public sector.
Dr Ayesha thanked the opposition benches for their recommendations and assured that recommendations made over the last four days had been sent to the Punjab Finance Department. She stated that the CM 2018 Reforms Roadmap was being implemented and missing facilities in schools, damaged school buildings, and IT labs in all government schools would be a priority for the Punjab government in the current fiscal year.
She mentioned reforms being made in the health sector for better service delivery under the Chief Minister Roadmap to ensure no vacancies for doctors in Basic Health Units, delivery of free medicine, and uninterrupted electricity supply to hospitals. To improve the state of government hospitals, she informed that the government had decided to contract the management of government hospitals in 10 districts to private service providers. Through a transparent process, private service providers would be selected by the Punjab government on a merit basis and given the hospital’s budget, in addition these providers will be bound by the government to not charge the patients. She cautioned that under this system the government employed doctors will not be fired from their jobs.
Furthermore, Dr Ayesha said outdoor of Wazirabad Institute of Cardiology has been made operational since December 2014 while necessary vacancies have also been approved for emergency and running of inpatient ward and process of recruitment for the vacancies is continuing. She said that process of purchase of necessary machinery has been completed and the received machinery has been installed. She said that revised PC-I of Surgical Tour of Mayo Hospital has been approved and funds of Rs 300 million have been allocated in the present budget for its completion. She said that the basic reason in delay of this project was presence of faults which have been removed.
All standards for transparency and accountability will be met while providing relief to the public, she stated in the House. Dr Ayesha said we are proud that all our projects are transparent and free of corruption. She said that Punjab government was not involved in any financial scandal during previous years and we can proud of speed and transparency of our projects.
The session was adjourned for Monday at 2 pm.