AJK finance department defies rules

By Tariq Naqash in The Dawn, Sept 26
MUZAFFARABAD, Sept 25: In what many official circles regard as sheer disregard to clear instructions of the federal government as well as treasury rules, the AJK finance department has released a tranche of Rs210 million to the Local Government and Rural Development (LG&RD) department under alleged intense pressure by the government in order to allow the department to carry on its practice of advance withdrawal of funds for development activities, it was learnt here on Friday.
Well placed sources told Dawn that the AJK government had formed a committee in March, with additional chief secretary (development) as its head and secretary finance, secretary LG&RD and accountant general as its members, to look into and submit recommendations about the mode of spending by the LG&RD department.
As against the earlier practice whereby the LG&RD department would obtain funds in advance and submit details of spending afterwards, the committee had strongly recommended that the LG&RD department should utilise development funds in accordance with the treasury rules as well as the policy prevailing in other departments across the country.
However, the recommendations were overthrown by the government itself, as Prime Minister Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan had passed an order to the finance department before his departure from the country on an official tour that the current quarter’s tranche to the tune of Rs210 million be released to the LG&RD department in advance.
The order was held in abeyance by the finance department for some days but had to implement it following pressure by the acting Prime Minister Sardar Qamar Zaman, sources said.
“There are crystal clear instructions of the federal government that expenditures should be made under assignment account and the treasury rule 666 also debars advance withdrawal of funds for developmental work but all that had been overlooked by the AJK government to please the public representatives who bank on (mostly fake) schemes of the LG&RD department for political support in their respective constituencies, a source remarked.
According to an official in the LG&RD department, payment under “Assignment Account” means the department will first execute developmental work on the ground and then submit bill for payment of funds against the work done.
Interestingly, the same LG&RD department makes expenditures under “Assignment Account” with regard to the schemes of the AJK Council and the World Bank-funded Community Infrastructure Support Programme (CISP), but when it comes to the state’s own Annual Development Programme it seeks funds in advance which are deposited in the (bank) accounts of the assistant directors (ADs), sources said.
The sources said the finance and the LG&RD departments were at loggerheads at this issue since a decade and although the government had made a right decision, it had failed to stand by it.
Even the LG&RD department’s own charter of work says that expenditures can be made only under the “Assignment Account” and no advance withdrawal can be made but that was not being followed by the officials of the department “who fulfil most of the political and in some cases financial needs of public representatives and their cronies,” sources said. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/national/rs210m-tranche-for-advance-withdrawals-ajk-finance-department-defies-rules-699