RAWALPINDI: Over more than one month into the fiscal year 2025-26, no annual budget has been approved for Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) and Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA).

A senior official of the finance department told Dawn that it was necessary for the civic bodies to prepare their budgets and get them approved from their governing bodies otherwise spending funds on development and office expenditure will be considered irregular. He said that before the start of the fiscal year, the civic bodies had to get their annual budgets approved. However, the government has not yet formed the governing bodies.

A senior official of RDA told Dawn that a financial scam had been detected in the RDA in May this year and more than Rs2 billion was still missing. Inquires have been launched by National Accountability Bureau, Punjab Anti-Corruption Establishment and the Chief Secretary Inspection Team.

`Despite passage of three months, no result has come out of the inquiries and the RDA officials have to appear before the probe committees,` he said.

Another reason, he said, was that the RDA governing board had not been formed for the last one year. Wasa and PHA Rawalpindi are also facing the same situation and could not get their budget approved. Wasa and PHA officials said they had prepared the budgets which would be finalised next week.

However, the RDA official said they were likely to finalise the budget after August 14. `It is not illegal but one can say irregular,` he said.

He said the civic agencies had spent funds on salaries and other expenditures on the basis of emergency.

According to the rules of RDA, Wasa and PHA, the governing body had the authority to prepare and execute new schemes, budget and make regulations, plans, and implement short and long-term development projects, preserve traffic and transportation corridors, roads, bridges, industry, education, health and planning execution. The composition of the governing body comprises a chairman and 16 members, including secretaries of finance, local government, urban development, commissioner, deputy commissioner, mayor Rawalpindi, RDA director general, Wasa managing director, three MPAs and two technical members.

When contacted, Wasa Managing Director Saleem Ashraf said that the annual budget was likely be approved by the end of next week as the government had appointed the deputy commissioner Rawalpindi as head of the governing body till the appointment of a permanent chairman and vice chairman.

He said that a sub-finance committee would give the initial plan which would be presented before the governing body by next week.

On the other hand, RDA`s senior official said the government had appointed a Housing and Urban Planning Department representative as head of the governing body and the annual budget would be presentedbeforeitforapprovalsoon.