Qaim Khan Lashari :
The basic principle of public finance management is how governments manage their resources, finances., expenditure and revenue. And through this, it ensures sustainability, fiscal space, and accountability. But all this becomes useless when all these principles are only in the theory and not being implemented. The recent outbreak of cholera in District Dera Bugti has established that effective management of finances for public health initiatives is missing. People have been left with no option but to drink water from open ponds having contaminated water.
The pursual of PSDP 2019-20 and 2020-21 establishes one fact people of Pirkoh have never been the target of development advocates in the water sector. In the financial year 2019-20, there was a total of thirty-six schemes and the share of Pirko was only two. Out of these thirty-six schemes, twenty-nine schemes of the whole Dera Bugti were supposed to be completed by end of the financial year. However, only nine were completed in Fy-2019-20 and the remaining twenty were shown completed in PSDP 2020-21.
As said earlier for Pirkoh there were only two schemes in the financial year 2019-20, namely Mast Thul Chak Dam having the cost of Rs.14 million, which was completed in the same year, but the gem of all “Water Supply Scheme Pir Koh” is a gordian knot for all of us. As per the PSDP document, the cost of the scheme is Rs.296.118 million and the yearly allocation for the years 2019-20 was only Rs.20.339 million with this speed people of Pirkoh will have their water supply scheme ready within the next eleven years.
Things were supposed to get better with the enactment of the Public Financial Act 2020, through which all ongoing schemes were going to get a 33% allocation each year which would have allowed the ongoing schemes to be completed within four years. But the same act was amended in 2021 and the share of ongoing schemes was reduced from 33% to 20% this is mostly applicable to orphan schemes and those having a say in the system can get a higher percentage.
The PSDP 2021-22 had some good news for the people of Pirkoh as this year they got an increased allocation of Rs.59.224 million compared to Rs. 20.339 in 2019-20. I hope the recent outbreak of cholera and the death of six innocent people will convince the planning managers to give “Water Supply Scheme Pirkoh” all its remaining allocation of Rs.182.17 in the forthcoming PSDP 2022-23 and the scheme gets completed in 2022-23 or come what may, we may be grieving for more such tragedies.
The author is currently serving as an officer in the Balochistan Government
