The planning commission has come under severe scrutiny by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) after submitting what turned out to be incorrect records of development spending. The lack of professionalism exhibited by the top officials of the Commission was blatantly exposed in a recently held presentation in the parliament. It was evident that it happened because of inadequate preparation that resulted into conflicting figures of the development expenses.
The matter became worse when Secretary of Ministry of Planning and Development, Shoaib Siddique along with Asif Sheikh, Ministry’s consultant on Public Sector Development Programme, could not come up with a sound explanation of the difference. PAC which works as an entity to watch over the financial affairs run under the parliament was highly disappointed with the presentation along with other parliament members who clearly showed their dissatisfaction.
The aim behind the meeting was to get a detailed review regarding the status of the federally funded projects, their budget allocations and delays in their implementation.
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Discrepancies in existing and new projects details
It was stated in the presentation that a total of Rs866 billion was kept aside for total 1,022 projects for the current fiscal year. Out of this amount, Rs536 billion was reserved for ongoing projects and Rs149 billion for new schemes. However, a major discrepancy was revealed when PAC chairman inquired about the total cost of these projects which turned out to be Rs4.3 trillion.
Khurshid Shah, leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, expressed his opinion by saying:
“The major flaw in the planning ministry’s working is that it starts new projects despite having very little budget for the ongoing schemes”
He also said that new projects take up the budget for existing ones which eventually wastes public funds.
It was also highlighted by Shah that the total amount required for completing ongoing projects was Rs5.7 trillion. However, with the ongoing expenses the government would take 7 more years to finish those.
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When Asif Sheikh tried to discuss their project wise performance, the matter became worse. Since PAC chairman picked up severe flaws in actual versus budgeted spending in the Karachi Green Line project.
Most of the parliament members showed their disappointment regarding the poor performance of the planning ministry. Sheikh Rohail Asghar of the PML-N said that they have defamed the entire ministry in the public eye. Sheikh, on the other hand, tried his best to defend inaccurate figures stating that the difference is due to budgetary estimates given to parliament and actual ground work.
Shah Mehmood, Finance Secretary said:
“The budget is not made on assumption and mismatch between the planning ministry’s statistics was because the ministry did not put hard work in preparation of the presentation”
What went wrong with the planning commission?
The vested interests of politicians took its toll on the planning commission which has been running on a project-wise approach. This has not only affected its performance but also defamed the ministry that has eventually lost public trust.
Asif Sheikh has been managing the core function of the planning division for the last 11 years. Its critical unit, Public Investment Programming is being supervised by the man himself thus affecting the quality of work being done so far. On another note, Sheikh has been running this division despite having surpassed his retirement age five years ago.