Rangers outsourced gas installations security, PAC told

PAC seeks details of payment made to paramilitary force

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday sought details of payments made to the Pakistan Rangers for providing security to vital gas installations after auditors revealed that the Rangers have outsourced the security job.

This action of the Pakistan Rangers to hire services of two private companies to secure gas pipelines in Punjab and Sindh is in violation of the directives given by Prime Minister of Pakistan in 2003, said the Director General of the Audit.



The General Pervez Musharraf’s government had engaged the Rangers for protecting the gas infrastructure from attacks by miscreants. But the Rangers hired M/s Mehmmod & Brothers in Sindh and M/s Barki Traders in Punjab for providing security and hiring vehicles for security purposes.

According to the DG Audit, the Petroleum Ministry paid these bills to the Pakistan Rangers, which subsequently made payments to the private contractors.

PAC Chairman Khursheed Shah asked the Secretary Petroleum Sikandar Sultan to provide complete details of the payments made to the Rangers since 2003 within a week time.

He also directed the secretary to share with federal auditors the agreement that his ministry signed with the paramilitary force. The federal auditors said in absence of the record, the authenticity of the expenditure could not be ascertained.



According to the auditors, only in one year Rs102.4 million were paid to Pakistan Rangers Sindh and Punjab for securing the gas pipelines. An amount of Rs48.3 million was paid to the Sindh Rangers and Rs54 million to the Punjab Rangers.

The report said the Punjab Rangers paid rent for 20 cars from M/S Barki Traders.

The Sindh Rangers outsourced security for the Sui Southern Gas Company Ltd to M/S Mehmood Brothers and the payments were cleared by Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR).

The Petroleum Division’s chief finance and accounting officer suggested that the audit objection should have been framed against the AGPR and Rangers instead of blaming the Petroleum Division.

A scrutiny of the 'vouched accounts' revealed that “the payments were made on the basis of an agreement between the Pakistan Rangers and the Ministry of Petroleum but neither a copy of the contract nor concurrence to the contract by the Ministry of Finance was provided.”

The deputy chief accounts of the Petroleum Division said the federal government, provincial governments and two gas companies were sharing cost of security on equal basis. He said the federal government had already stopped making payments from June last year after Punjab refused to share the cost.

“Since then the gas utility companies are making full payments to the Pakistan Rangers,” he added.

Highly mismanaged division

The PAC’s proceedings also brought to the limelight the serious administrative issues being faced by the Petroleum Division. The Petroleum Secretary Sikandar Sultan had to admit his failures after being repeatedly grilled by the PAC.



The PAC members were visibly perturbed over Sultan’s lack of command over his subject. The Petroleum Division is headed by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi but it has remained one of the badly administered divisions of the federal government.

“Petroleum Division is facing worst kind of human resource shortage for the past three years,” conceded Sultan. He said the ministry had no choice but to take help of companies to run its affairs, which was also raising questions of conflict of interest.

“The petroleum division is the most difficult division among all the federal ministries and does not cooperate,” complained the Director General Federal Audit to the PAC.

The DG Audit said the secretary did not bother to chair the Departmental Accounts Committee meetings and had delegated the task to his junior officers. The PAC chairman directed that only federal secretary would chair the departmental accounts committee meetings.