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MoPH biggest development budget spender

MoPH biggest development budget spender

author avatar
5 Dec 2011 - 19:56
MoPH biggest development budget spender
author avatar
5 Dec 2011 - 19:56

KABUL (MoPH) has been able to utilise 60 percent of its annual development budget during the ongoing fiscal year, emerging as an uplift spending leader, an official said on Monday.

SO far 30 percent of the 74 billion afghanis budget allocated to various ministries and departments has been utilised, the Ministry of Finance spokesman, Aziz Shams, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

He said the percentage would further increase until the end of the year when they would receive reports from all the ministries and departments concerned.

Shams said reports showed the Public Health Ministry had used 60 percent of its 7.3 billion afghanis development budget. He said the ministry was leading the way in budget utilisation.

The Information and Telecommunications Ministry is second, having spent 57 percent of its 700 million afghanis development budget.

However, Shams said reports revealed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, High Commission for Atomic Energy, Afghanistan Natural Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) and the Department of Geodesy and Cartography were yet to utilise their funds.

He said the foreign ministry had been provided with 577 million afghanis, High Commission for Atomic Energy with more than two million afghanis, ANDMA with more than 23 million afghanis and the Department of Geodesy and Cartography with 164 million afghanis.

Ministries of information and culture, defence and irrigation, the canalisation company, the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA), High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption and the Independent Environment Protection Organisation have so far spent less than seven percent of their development budgets.

Lack of capacity, a delay in budget approval, insecurity, ill-timed funding by donor agencies, insufficient resources in provinces, the existence of parallel set-ups and inadequate monitoring of projects by the National Assembly are some of reasons for the scant use of development budgets.

The foreign ministry’s deputy spokesman, Dr Faramarz Tamanna, acknowledged the failure to use its development budget. But he argued it had fewer development activities compared to other ministries.

“The development budget of the ministry is meant for utilisation for short-term projects,” she said, adding the budget was being used for reconstruction and renovation of embassy buildings in foreign countries and similar activities at home.

Without going into details, she said 75 percent of the ministry’s development budget would be used until the end of the current fiscal year.

A Communications and Information Technology Ministry official, Baryalai Hasam, said they had used the development budget, keeping in view an effective plan for implementation of projects and carrying out procurements in an organised way.

ma/mud

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