AGP report: Irregularities to tune of Rs6.5b found at PPOD

Fraud, misappropriation, theft of public money amounting to Rs195.5m reported

ISLAMABAD: Massive irregularities involving close to Rs6.5 billion were found in the functions of Pakistan Post Office Department (PPOD), according to the Auditor General of Pakistan’s report for the year 2016-17.

The audit report pinpointed irregularities of fraud, misappropriations, theft of public money amounting to Rs195.5 million. According to the audit findings, 140 cases of fraud and misappropriations involving Rs194 million on account of Postal Life Insurance (PLI) premium, fake PT stamps, payment of military pension, postal pension, utility bills collection and others were found in the 23 formations of PPOD.



The matter was reported to Principal Account Officer (PAO) and PPOD management and it was replied that an amount of Rs41.6 million was recovered and efforts for recovery of the remaining amounts were underway, stated the report.

Five cases of unauthorised occupation of PPOD land amounting to Rs1.4 billion were also reported.

According to details, the department suffered loss of Rs90 million on account of unlawful occupation of the government property.  One of the occupied land included bungalow No D-3 in the P&T Colony on Multan Road in Lahore. The bungalow was allotted to a postal officer and the officer vacated it but some outsiders unlawfully occupied the bungalow, which led the department to sustain the loss of around Rs90 million.



Meanwhile, PMG Metropolitan Circle Karachi had a colony consisting of 192 quarters on the Gizri Road Karachi which has been lost due to encroachment and illegal sale of land. According to the auditor general the 116 quarters, with approximately four marla area per quarter had the minimum estimated value of Rs1.160 million.

However, in response to the illegal occupation the PAO and PPOD management replied that the matter of unauthorised occupation had been reported to Sindh High Court and was lying pending.



The audit recommended that the matter be investigated at a higher level and responsibility should be fixed against those who failed to take timely action for pursuing the case in court.

Fifteen cases of non-compliance of rules involving Rs3.4 billion and three cases for a lack of internal control involving Rs550.197 million were also reported.

According to the report, the Director General PPOD incurred an excess expenditure of Rs2.2 billion against the allocated budget during financial year 2015-16.



When the matter was reported to PAO and PPOD management, it was replied that the expenditure involved was of obligatory nature and could not be postponed. However, according to the audit report, this reply was unacceptable as the case of supplementary grant was forwarded to the Ministry of Finance very late in April 2016 instead of December 2015.

Irregular payment of honorarium and renewal commission was made up to the tune of Rs255 million, the audit report added. According to it, unauthorised printing of inland stamped envelopes caused loss of Rs121 million to the public exchequer.