Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Planning Commission and Reforms had introduced 57 new project schemes for the financial year 2015-16 wherein only 18 project schemes could be approved and they have been included in the financial year 2016-17 for the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) at the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

According to the budgetary documents available with Daily Times, the inclusion of 18 approved projects means that 31.5 per cent of the new projects will get funding while the remaining 68.5 per cent will remain devoid of funding during the last fiscal year 2015-16. Currently out of 57 projects, 39 projects could not get approval of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) till the announcement of the new budget of the current fiscal year 2016-17. The projects remained unapproved or were in the process of approval.

The documents read that a total amount of Rs 5.4261 billion has been earmarked for the 39 new schemes of the HEC while Rs 16.060 billion would be spent on the ongoing schemes during fiscal year 2016-17. Out of a total of 39 new schemes only four have been approved and the remaining 35 remain unapproved.

According to details, the government has allocated Rs 21.487 billion to the HEC for the fiscal year 2016-17 in the Public Sector Development Programme

According to the formal method, in order to ensure proper utilisation of allocated funds, the unapproved schemes should get formal approval from the CDWP before presentation in the next budget but the planning commission has done otherwise as 39 unapproved projects have been put into place for the ongoing financial year 2016-17.

According to the higher education experts, in view of the previous practice , if the 34 remaining projects are not approved by the respective competent forums CDWP and ECNEC, the allocated funds would remain mere allocations and the universities would be unable to utilise the allocated funds under various mentioned schemes outlined in the PSDP 2016-17.

An official of the planning commission termed this allocation tantamount to put facts under the carpet. He said that these allocations were no more than tall claims by the authorities concerned.

The document suggests that the highest allocation was Rs 1.3 billion for the scheme “strengthening and upliftment of universities located in the backward areas”. Whereas the lowest amount of Rs 193.592 million was allocated for “Capacity building and strengthening of the Pakistan study centre University of Balochistan, Quetta”.

Despite repeated calls, both the concerned federal ministers for Education and Professional Training, Muhammad Balighur Rehman and Planning commission, Prof Ahsan Iqbal did not respond for comments over the matter.