PAC hearing: No penalty for khakis

PAC settles former PTA chairman’s audit, despite evidence against him.

ISLAMABAD:

The ‘powerful’ Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly compromised on misuse of public funds by a retired general, at the cost of resentment within the body.

Despite determining that former Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman Shahzad Alam, a retired army general, used public funds for personal comfort, the PAC on Thursday let him go while only asking him to pay back about half of the amount he was accused of misappropriating.

The public expenditure scrutiny body, despite internal resentment, settled the audit objection of misuse of Rs2.2 million on account of purchase of 24 items by Alam for personal use. The former general paid slightly over Rs1 million to buy back 16 items at depreciated value, plus a luxury car.

Alam, who was summoned by the PAC, said the PTA management handed him over a list of items when he left the office in 2008. The list included laptops, mobile phones, camera, generator and a fitness machine among other things.

When asked how the PTA benefitted from purchase of aforementioned items, the former chairman had no response. After an audit objection, Alam returned eight items and purchased the remaining 16 at a depreciated price, known as book value, of Rs1 million, director-general (DG) audit told the PAC.

The former chairman, upon leaving office, also illegally took with him a Honda VTI 2007 model car that was purchased for Rs1.53 million.

After the audit objection, Alam retained the car by paying its depreciated price that was not disclosed in the meeting. The settlement divided the body into two distinct groups.

While most members wanted to penalise the former general, two members of the committee including an independent from Nankana Sahib Saeed Ahmad Zafar and the PML-Q’s Shahnaz Sheikh strongly advocated a lenient approach.

Support for the “corrupt general,” however, irked PAC member Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of PML-Nawaz who subsequently left the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2011.