Of the 205 Gewogs in the country, 12 Gewogs have used only 50 percent of the allocated budget in the financial year 2010-2011, according to the annual financial statement.
The delay in allocating the funds to the gewogs is the main reason why these Gewogs could use only half of the allocated budget.
“80 percent of the capital expenditure is in the form of foreign grants and loans which takes time to come through,” said the Finance Minister, Wangdi Norbu. He said works have to be awarded to the contractors and some of them do not perform up to expectation. He also said there is a lack of technical experts especially in the field of design and estimation which adds to the delay of utilising the fund.
Because of the delay, the development activities could not be carried out on time, and the remaining budget had to be returned to the government.
The Opposition Leader, Tshering Tobgay said measures should be in place to confront the challenges. He said if there is a fault in the system which is hampering the distribution of budget on time, the system should be corrected.
He also said including all the ministries, autonomous and constitutional bodies and Dzongkhags, a 16 percent of the total budget was not utilised.
Thangrong Gewog in Monggar has utilized maximum of its budget followed by Orong in Samrdup Jongkhar and Shengang in Punakha. The findings were based on the comparison of the revised budget appropriation and the actual annual expenditure.
