ABSTRACT

Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) is an important policy instrument which aims to achieve socioeconomic objectives and sustainable economic growth of the government by allocating budgetary resources for development projects and program. To achieve the development goals of a country, the efficient and effective utilization of public funds/allocation is very crucial. However, the utilization of development funds at federal level have been remained dismally poor in Pakistan. This study particularly aimed to investigate specific reasons of slow utilization of PSDP funds before implementation of Public Financial Management Act 2019, how they were mitigated in new Act And level of implementation and the bottlenecks to implement PFM Act 2019 if any. In this study the utilization pattern of PSDP funds are discussed. This study is based on mixed method approach by combining qualitative as well as quantitative research method. Qualitative research method is utilized to investigate in depth the reasons of inefficient utilization of PSDP funds, the reforms to fix the problem and bottlenecks in the way to successful implementation of those reforms. Techniques of descriptive statistics were utilized to analyses trend of utilization of PSDP funds. Findings of the study reveals partial implementation of the Act and various bottlenecks in the way to achieve the targeted fiscal discipline. The reforms introduced are not implemented in letter and spirit. Despite of lapse of three years of promulgation of Act, the very issue of Public Sector Development Program fund utilization prevails. The pace of utilization of funds is slower than quarterly disbursement by the Planning Commission despite of upfront release of funds.