Balochistan Government Facing Problems in Budget Making

Quetta: Finance department of Government of Balochistan is facing capacity issues to prepare Fiscal budget for the year 2016-17 after en-mass transfers of officers from the department in aftermath of Mushtaq Raisani arrest, claimed a source.

Balochistan government is scheduled to present its budget for the next fiscal year on 17^th June.

On 6^th May, Secretary Finance Mushtaq Raisani was arrested by National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on charges of corruption after Rs. 630 million were discovered from his home. He was immediately suspended and was replaced with Home Secretary Akbar Durrani.

Over a dozen officers of Finance Department were transferred within a week after the arrest of Mushtaq Raisani.

Newly posted officers who have no background in Finance and budget making have got less than 3 weeks to prepare the budget which is proving to be an overwhelming task for them, claimed a source in government of Balochistan who wishes not to be named.

Mahfooz Ali Khan, Former Finance Secretary who served at that position for over 6 years, agrees that it would be near to impossible task for the newly posted officers to understand the technicalities of budget making in just few weeks.

“In My opinion there should not be any transfer and posting of officers in finance department after month of December,” said Mr. Khan.

Jan Achakzai, a senior analyst, however disagrees. He believes that all technical budgeting skills and institutional experience of the Finance Department was not stored in one person; Mushtaq Raisani.

“Neither, transfers and  nor postings should hamper the government’s ability to present budget on time as the preparation is going on well in advance and CM Nawab Sanaullah Zehri is taking keen interest in the matter,” he said.

The source claims that Finance Department will be able to present budget on the given date of 17^th June but it’s likely that it can have certain technical flaws which can come to limelight later during the fiscal year.

A version of this was published in The Nation under an arrangement.