The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to modernize the Urban Areas Development Authorities and Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMAs) with the purpose to make them financially stable

Peshawar February 5, The Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has decided to modernize the Urban Areas Development Authorities and Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMAs) with the purpose to make them financially stable. For this purpose, new reforms will be introduced in the Urban Areas Development Authorities and TMAs across the province.

This decision was made during a meeting of the Local Government Department held here the other day, with the Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in the chair.The meeting was attended by Provincial Minister for Local Government Arshad Ayub Khan, Advisor to Chief Minister for finance Muzzammil Aslam, Secretary Local Government Dr. Ambar Ali, and other officials from the Local Government Department.

The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the challenges faced by the Urban Areas Development Authorities and their solutions.

It was decided that new reforms will be implemented in all TMAs and Urban Areas Development Authorities by June of this year. To achieve this, international best practices will be adopted in these institutions. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission Enterprise Risk Management Framework will be enforced in these institutions. Similarly, International Public Sector Accounting Standards will also be implemented in the TMAs and Urban Areas Development Authorities.

The meeting was informed that the new reforms will lead to financial stability and improved performance of the TMAs and Urban Areas Development Authorities. The authorities told that eforms have already been implemented in the Urban Area Development Authority Kohat, yielding positive results. Before these reforms, the Urban Area Development Authority Kohat had an annual deficit of Rs 49 million, whereas after the implementation of the new reforms, it is expected to have a surplus of Rs 25.7 million.

The Chief Minister has directed that the model of UADA Kohat be adopted in all TMAs and Urban Areas Development Authorities, emphasizing that making these institutions self-sufficient and enhancing their capacity is the need of the hour. “The provincial government is committed to strengthening and stabilizing these institutions”, he added.