‘PAC retrieves Rs100b from govt departments’

They hope to get back Rs120 billion in the next few months.

KARACHI:

The Sindh government’s watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has managed to get back 100 billion rupees from several government departments in three years, according to its convener Yasmeen Rehman. She hoped that they would get another Rs120 billion in the next few months.

Rehman addressed a PAC meeting on Monday about the Ministry of Ports and Shipping audit reports from the years 1996 to 2006.

According to Rehman, over 14,000 vehicles, out of 18,000, were being misused by different government sectors, leading to losses worth Rs5 billion per year on fuel charges.

“The federal department’s financial system is not good so there should be greater accountability to improve the system,” she suggested .

KPT was running its financial matters under the Federal Board of Revenue, but should be an autonomous body because it runs on tax money, she added.

According to Rehman, KPT has been investing Rs135 million since 1995 but is facing losses. She directed that the KPT administration to recover the losses within a month.

PAC member MNA Hamid Yar said that KPT is facing problems because of old and new laws. He said that the PAC has returned ministers’ and bureaucrats’ vehicles.

The committee concluded that the KPT tender system was unsatisfactory and lacked transparency.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2011.