The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) has launched an action plan to clear the arrears that have long been piling up and become an issue of government and public concern.
The action plan published recently by the ministry aims at clearing minimum 45 per cent arrears of the total liability of the ministry and 60 per cent of the agencies under the ministry and district coordination committees (DCCs).
It said that that while clearing the arrears, minimum 35 per cent of the arrears on advance payment should be cleared, and 30 per cent of the unrecovered money. Likewise, in case of handed over arrears, 25 per cent target is set for the clearance.
The action plan has also set the targets for each trimester of the current Fiscal Year 2022/23 with total arrears clearing target of minimum Rs. 3.90 billion. According to it, in the first trimester that ends in mid-October, the ministry should clear 0.57 per cent of the total target – Rs. 50 million. Likewise, target of Rs. 600 million is set for the second trimester, Rs. 1.10 billion for third and Rs. 2.15 billion for the last trimester. Clearing of a quarter of the total arrears, 24.75 per cent, set for this fiscal, will happen in the last trimester.
Similarly, the action plan has a provision to clearing all arrears up to Fiscal Year 2002/03. It asks to put efforts to clear more than 40 per cent of the arrears from 2003/04 to 2021/22.
It has noted that the works of the committees under the ministry to clear arrears was pathetic and most of the agencies have cleared only small amount against the annual target. The ministry has warned of carrots and sticks on the basis of work progress in terms of clearing the arrears.
“Piling up arrears is not a good sign in terms of organizational effectiveness and economic discipline. It also means that there was a lack of expertise in mobilising resources and non-adherence to the legal provisions,” said the MoFAGA.
It has also clearly said that there shouldn’t be arrears exceeding 5 per cent of the total audited amount.
On the recommendation and directives of the Office of the Auditor General (OAG), other ministries have also implemented similar action plans to clear the arrears that have long been overdue.
In its 59th report published in July this year, the OAG has suggested for strong monitoring of the budget execution, and holding the concerned authorities responsible for the misappropriation of the public funds. It also asked to connect fiscal discipline with performance evaluation and apply reward and punishment policy to maintain it.
Source : TRN,
