Public accounts scrutiny : ‘Big fish’ taking over lakes and ponds in Sindh

Landlords need to hand lakes, ponds over to fishermen, urges accounts watchdog.

KARACHI:

A total of 1,209 influential men have take over water bodies across Sindh, rendering them off limits for the people of the land, noted the province’s accounting watchdog on Wednesday.

These ‘squatters’ did not acquire this land through government auctions, which is standard procedure. “Fishermen from the areas do not have the right to catch even a single fish,” remarked Jam Tamachi Unar, who is the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

The committee asked the secretary for the fisheries and livestock department, Liaq Ahmed Memon, to update it on the progress of handing over lakes to fishermen under the new legislation. Memon shook his head and replied, “You [already] know everything, sir.”

Unar said that not only influential landlords, but businessmen were also involved in usurping fishermen’s rights. “These poor people were happy that with the change in the law, they would be freely able to catch fish,” said Unar. “But nothing has been done so far. It is the responsibility of the state to implement the law in letter and spirit to benefit the people.”

The committee urged the Sindh government to implement the new fisheries law that abolishes the contract system. In turn, all water bodies — mainly lakes and ponds — should be handed over by illegal occupants to the fishermen.

11 murky audit points deferred

During the meeting, the committee had no choice but to defer 11 audit paras or points for the fisheries and livestock department because the records and verified copies of vouchers were not produced. Fourteen audit paras from 2006 to 2009 had to be discussed and the department’s officials had no justification for either the money not being recovered or the irregular expenses.

Around 25 fisheries officials had come to the meeting from their districts with bundles of supporting documents. But the committee didn’t find them “satisfactory”, leading to the deferrals. During the discussion on the paras, the audit team pointed out that Rs136 million was spent on buying different items, but again, they had no invoices to prove the transactions. “Ten different offices, including the director of the Hyderabad animal breeding, Tando Jam vaccination production unit project director, the Tando Jam veterinary diagnostic lab project director and the Korangi livestock experimental station office in-charge were involved in the irregularities,” Unar said.

The chairman noted that the department bought items worth Rs8.79 million for diagnostic labs and research institutes, without opening tenders. The fisheries secretary quoted financial rules and said that items costing less than Rs100,000 can be bought without tenders. However, the finance deputy secretary rebuffed this, saying that there was no such rule and tenders were necessary to buy any government item.

The audit team also said that there was no account of Rs4.9 million, supposedly spent on poultry, and Rs17 million that were apparently spent on expenses in the Karachi, Dadu, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Rohri and Tando Jam units. This needed to be explained as well.

Very little recovered

Speaking to the media, the audit director-general, Najmul Sadiq Siddiqi, said that anomalies of around Rs1 million were revealed during the discussion of the 14 audit paras, and only Rs100,000 have been recovered. “We have given them one month to submit the records and recover the amount embezzled by the department,” he said.

Earlier, Unar had expressed concern over the bureaucratic attitude of officials who, according to him, were not taking the watchdog’s proceedings seriously. He reiterated, “You should understand the importance of the PAC.”

Unar was displeased with officials for not bringing the audit papers with them when the meeting was called. “It is unfortunate that you are submitting working papers at the meeting,” he said. “You have to send a response to the audit paras at least one week before the meeting, so that we can go through the piles of paper. We cannot possibly understand these files within minutes.” In response, fisheries and livestock secretary Memon said they were collecting relevant records and certified copies of the expenditure, which was taking time.

Unar directed PAC officials to complain to the chief minister and the chief secretary about the “lethargic” attitude of bureaucrats.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 14^th,  2011.