rawalpindi –  All the financial activities of City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) are on halt owing to the vacant seat of Executive District Officer (EDO) Finance and Planning, reliable sources revealed to The Nation here on Thursday.
According to sources, the office of EDO Finance and Planning has been running without the officer concerned for last three years affecting the finance and budget preparation activities in the district.
Finance and Planning Department could not prepare budget in time as EDO was not in office. Sources said usually release budget call letter in month of July but this year the letter could not be issued even in September due to unavailability of the EDO.
“It is violation of budget rules which is why district budget for year 2014-15 was present in July instead of June 2014” sources added.
On the other hand, the government claimed they have kicked off process of picking a suitable man on permanent basis for the vacant post but so far it has failed to find one.
According to Punjab Tehsil and District Budget rules 2003, EDO Finance and Planning is responsible to prepare budget. It is due to his absence that websites of 25 districts including Rawalpindi are non-functional and the budget documents could not be uploaded on it for public awareness, number of projects and funds approved for it.
Budget documents are available only on websites of six district governments which were prepared by Center for Peace and Development Initiative (CPDI) headed by Syed Kausar Abbas.
Due to non-functional websites people have no participation in government activities and projects being launched.
Rawalpindi district was ranked 19th in terms of transparency, performance, people’s participation and preparation of budget documents.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Dall, however, when contacted for his comments, said that he has writen a letter to Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) requesting to appoint an EDO Finance and Planning. “I hope within 10 days, the new EDO Finance and Planning will be appointed” he said.
He said that due to unavailability of the EDO they were facing problems to run the financial activities but he along with other competent officers including the additional deputy commissioner general (ADCG) and District Officers were running the affairs intelligently.
He said the ADCG was looking after the affairs of Rawal Town and has experience of running its financial affairs which was why the works was going on.
He said that earlier he made his mind to hand over the post of EDO Finance and Planning to ADCG but later the idea was put in shelve as this move would effect dengue campaign and other matters related to law and order situation being seen and run by ADCG.

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