Govt Reduces Sanctioning Powers of Development Authorities

The Federal government has downward revised the sanctioning limit of the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) and Departmental Development Working Party (DDWP). With the approval of the National Economic Council (NEC), the sanctioning powers of CDWP have been revised by Rs. 7.5 billion, while the sanctioning powers of DDWP have been reduced to Rs. 1 billion, an official source told ProPakistani. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, in his capacity as Chairman NEC, has approved the revised sanctioning limits for various federal development foras, the source said. A notification in this regard has been issued by the Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms, said the source. According to the notification, the sanctioning powers of CDWP have been revised from Rs. 10 billion to Rs. 7.5 billion, while the powers of DDWP have been restricted to Rs. 1 billion, said the source. With the downward revision of the sanctioning powers of CDWP, the powers of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) have been enhanced. ECNEC, which had sanctioning limits of above Rs. 10 billion, has now got the approval powers of the projects above Rs. 7.5 billion. Similarly, CDWP, which had the sanctioning powers of Rs. 2-10 billion, is now authorized to approve projects above Rs. 1 billion and up to Rs. 7.5 billion. The DDWP sanctioning limit is now up to Rs 1 billion. It is worth mentioning here that before the ouster of the PTI government, the sanctioning limits of various development foras were upward revised. DDWP is chaired by the Federal Secretary of the Ministry/Division/Principal Accounting Officer (PAO). The previous government had enhanced the sanctioning limit of DDWP from up to Rs. 60 million to Rs. 3 billion. CDWP, which works under the Planning Commission of Pakistan, considers the projects recommended by the PDWP and DDWP. The sanction powers of the CDWP had been increased by the previous government from Rs. 3 billion to Rs. 10 billion. CDWP recommends projects over and above its sanctioning limits to ECNEC. ECNEC is the highest development forum, which is chaired by Finance Minister. The previous government had enhanced sanctioning limits of ECNEC from over Rs. 3 billion to above Rs. 10 billion.