PRESS RELEASE

PESHAWAR: The community social audit report has revealed that 43 water supply schemes of Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Karak are dysfunctional.

The social audit reports on two southern districts Lakki Marwat and Karak were unveiled in a seminar organised by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Right to Information Commission (KPRIC) in collaboration with Centre for Governance and Public Accountability (CGPA) at a hotel here on Tuesday.

The KPRIC has carried out the social audit reports through community social audit committees under the KP RTI Act, 2013. As per the report, out of 494 water supply schemes of Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) Karak, 43 water supply schemes are dysfunctional. The report said that no scheme was handed over to this division under Barani Project. However, the requested copy of vehicle log book has not been provided by PHED. About the PHED Lakki Marwat, it was stated in the social audit report that the total allocated developmental budget for financial year 2017-18 to PHED was Rs331,664,900.

However, the report stated that the PHED Lakki Marwat failed to provide the information about the expenditure of development budget under the RTI Law. It said that no water supply and sanitation scheme was approved in the financial year 2017-18. Besides, it was revealed that the PHED also failed to provide the requested information about details of schemes allocated to each MPA/MNA in the district.

“As per information provided by PHED Lakki Marwat, there are total three vehicles having registration number AA-1711 Peshawar, A-2307 and A-3772 Peshawar. Only one vehicle bearing registration No AA-1711 is on road, while the remaining two are off road,” the report stated.

The report revealed that copy of equipment was not provided to the committee. It said record of the total sanctioned posts in the PHED was not provided.

It further said that PHED Lakki Marwat also did not provide information about water supply schemes and details about expenditure of the current budget for financial year 2017-18 along with break-up. The key findings of social audit of District Headquarters Hospital Lakki Marwat were also shared with the participants of the seminar.

As per the report, medical equipment was dysfunctional in the DHQ Hospital Lakki Marwat including 24-BP monitoring machine ABPM50, contac medical system, endoscope gastro duodenal model and ultrasound machine. The report revealed that no incinerator was available in DHQ Lakki Marwat. It said that out of 200 beds, 100 beds were being used. In his address, Chief Information Officer KPRIC Azmat Hanif Orakzai said the commission started the community social audits of public sector institutions for bringing improvement in these institutions and create awareness about the use of public funds by the institutions. He said that RTI Commission was aiming to improve governance in the province. “The public can judge the performance of public institution through social audit,” he said, adding that the journalists and government servants were more beneficiary of the RTI law. Samina Naz from Foundation Open Society Institute Pakistan, said that the foundation was providing services to government in social audit of public institutions, education, legal empowerment and journalists’ protection.

Information Commissioner, KPRIC, Riaz Khan Daudzai said that the high profile benefits of RTI Law was strengthening economy and it had brought transparency in the affairs of the government institutions.

PTI MPAs Asia Khattak and Fahim Ahmad, former RTI Information Commissioner Kalimullah and others spoke on the occasion. Youths and journalists from merged districts attended the seminar.