ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday censured the provinces for insufficient spending and development in the segment of oil and gas fields.
This is notwithstanding adequate funds had been provided by petroleum exploration and development firms for the above-mentioned purpose, reported Dawn.
The Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum headed by Senator Mohsin Aziz was informed by Secretary Petroleum Sultan Raja that provinces weren’t spending funds for development under CSR programme of the E&P companies.
Mr Raja added the provinces were not answering queries to the reasons for why the funds remain unutilized.
The secretary petroleum said exploration and production (E&P) entities under stipulated laws and policies of the government needed to transfer specific amounts under CSE to the relevant deputy commissioners, where exploration and development activities are underway.
Mr Raja stated the funds remained unspent because they are handled by a committee for transparency purposes.
These committees constitute of top officials of provincial government/district administration and local political representatives, said an official.
Petroleum secretary shared he had personally written letters to the chief secretaries and no response was received from them.
He added billion rupees of funds supposed to be utilized for the development of health, schools and water supply schemes remained held up with assistant and deputy commissioners.
Taking serious exception to this, the committee directed details of funds from all fields and companies be presented before the upcoming session to determine how the funds were utilized, their outcomes delivered and where they remain unused and in what quantities.
A sub-committee was ordered to be setup by the Senate panel for executing the government’s hiring policy for the local population in the respective oil and gas fields by the entities operating there.
Sub-committee members would be required to visit eight oil and gas exploration blocks in the initial phase and investigate the employment position in those areas.
The Senate panel voiced anger over the failure to install reverse osmosis (RO) plants for water purification by the entities working in oil and gas exploration in Sanghar, Sindh.
They asked details from Deputy Commissioner Sanghar regarding it. Also, the committee asked for details to be provided for tenders being floated for setting up of RO plants and funds spent till now.
The Senate panel instructed the oil and gas exploration companies to install 10 RO plants in each district encompassing the fields.
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Deputy Managing Director informed the committee the entity had spent Rs1 billion yearly on CSR activities in exploration sites.
