Alarms raised as throw-back liabilities surge to Rs6.5trln

ISLAMABAD: A Senate body on Tuesday sounded serious alarms as throw-forward liabilities have surged to a massive Rs6.5 trillion, mainly owing to lack of or delay in the release of funds for development projects.

The throw-forward liabilities are the expenses, which cannot be made in the current year and are budgeted to be met in later years based on average allocations.

Concerns to this effect were raised in a meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, chaired by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla at the Parliament Lodges.

The committee while receiving a briefing on the Ministry–wise Details of Projects costing less than Rs2 billion, raised questions on the time and cost overrun projects.

The ministry, while vetting upon the question, said the federal government’s financial capacity had overflown to fund the projects.

“Too many demands competing too scarce resources” the ministry stated.

The committee unanimously decided that meetings should be held with the representatives of each division on time and cost overrun projects and obtain a concrete report on the delay in the projects. The committee also questioned the large number of projects given to the Finance Division and the foreign-aided projects and sought details.

The ministry informed the committee that lack of cancellation policies was also one of the reasons the projects were not completed.

“No project is ever cancelled” the ministry officials stated. To this, the Senate body also put forward the recommendations to introduce the policy of cancellation.

Moving forward, the committee inquired about the progress report on the recommendation made by the committee in its meeting held on September 16, 2021.

On the recommendation of the standing committee to the CPEC Authority to make one member of the committee part of Joint Working Groups (JWGs) for future projects, the committee was informed that the JWGs were headed by Secretaries of respective Ministries/Division who also had the powers to decide matters related to the composition of groups. The ministry officials also updated the committee that the recommendation had been forwarded to heads of all CPEC JWGs.

With regards to the committee recommendations on the Special Ecomonic Zone Act, 2012, which should be amended in order to facilitate the investors the Senate body was informed that the process has been initiated to make necessary amendments in the Special Economic Zone Act.

On the recommendations of the committee to send a list of members of overview committee, headed by MNA Khalid Magsi, the ministry produced a list of members of the oversight committee before the meeting.

Officials said the committee is constituted to review the progress on federally-funded PSD (Public Sector Development) projects and highlight necessary interventions and also provide input for future development interventions to develop Balochistan through federal PSDP and/or public private partnership. A detailed presentation by Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives on PSDP projects over Rs2 billion along with their ageing and cost analysis with regards to dollar fluctuations was also taken up.

The committee was told the total number of PSDP projects for 2021-22 were 1,155 to be developed at a total cost of Rs9,422 billion.

The expenditure up to 30-06-2021 is Rs2,886 billion, throw-forward up to 01-07-2021 Rs6,537 billion, and allocation up to 01-07-2021 is Rs900 billion, according to officials.

The Ministry also informed the committee on PSDP utilisation for 2021-22 with a total of Rs900 billion out of which 100 billion was in the shape of foreign aid.

The committee was also informed that utilisation as on 10-12-2021 was Rs190 billion, which was 67 percent of sanctioned amount.

While briefing on the current status of development of Islamabad jail, the committee raised questions about the prison's construction without permission. “A jail is being constructed in Islamabad buffer zone,” said Saleem Mandviwalla.

The committee noted the construction cost of Islamabad jail had also increased three times from an earlier estimate of Rs3.9 billion. The committee was informed the prison was now estimated to cost Rs12 billion. The committee chairman directed the officials that the issue of construction of Islamabad Jail would be included in every meeting of the committee.