Financial management: Organisational structure of 1122 ‘not up to the mark’

‘Delegatation of multiple functions to a single officer is not a good practice’ .

LAHORE: Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed has taken exception to the organisational structure of the Rescue 1122 that concentrates affairs of procurement, finance and audit in the office of the finance deputy director.

Documents available with The Express Tribune suggest that Naeem Mukhtar, Rescue 1122 deputy director finance, is authorised to procure equipment, sanction release of funds and oversee internal audit.

A notification issued by Rescue 1122 Director General Arshad Zia authorises Mukhtar to take charge of the office of the procurement deputy director to look after the affairs of the procurement wing, in addition to his responsibilities as the finance deputy director.The notification has also appointed Bilal Asif, a budget and accounts officer in basic payscale-17, as a drawing and disbursing officer. It has directed Asif to consult Mukhtar on all important matters relating to the finance wing. The document states that Mukhtar is also authorised to oversee internal audit.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because she is not authorised to speak on the issue, a Rescue 1122 officer told The Tribune said that Naeem Mukhtar had joined the Rescue 1122 in 2009 on a three-year deputation period as budget and accounts officer (grade 17). She said Mukhtar came from the Home Department where he worked as a senior stenographer (grade 15). She said that in 2010 Mukhtar was appointed as the finance deputy director, replacing Ijaz Virk who was given charge of the budget and accounts officer (in grade 17) through a notification issued on July 16, 2010.

The officer said that this violated a decision reached in a meeting of the Punjab Emergency Council, the supreme policy making body of the Rescue 1122, in January 2010. She said the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had approved for regularisation of services a list of contract employees performing duties at the Rescue 1122. Ijaz Virk’s name had been approved for the office of finance deputy director (grade 18) and Naeem Mukhtar’s for that of budget and accounts (grade 17), she added.

Rasheed, also the head of Punjab Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said it was against sound financial management practices to authorise the same officer to look after affairs related to procurement, finance and audit. He said that in such a situation there was no way to check if the officer was involved in some malpractice. “This is a serious violation and needs to be corrected immediately. Rescue 1122 needs to reform its organisational structure to ensure checks and balances on use of public money,” he said.

Rescue 1122 Director General Arshad Zia said that delegation of powers related to finance, procurement and audit wings to a single officer was not an irregularity. He said that as director general he was authorised exercise his discretion in such matters. Besides, he said he was personally looking after the affairs of the procurement wing. There he had been no corruption case in the agency since he took charge as the director general. Zia also dismissed the suggestion that Mukhtar’s appointment as finance deputy director was an irregularity in view of the notification issued by the Punjab Emergency Council.

Both Naeem Mukhtar and Ijaz Virk refused comment.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2016.