Billions misappropriated in province: AGP report

Rs59.7b irregularities blamed on negligence and misuse of funds by government officials


Mohammad Zafar August 16, 2019
Balochistan Assembly. PHOTO: EXPRESS

QUETTA: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) report has revealed irregularities worth billions of rupees in Balochistan’s annual expenditures for the year 2017-18.

The report for 2018-19 said that the Balochistan government spent Rs259 billion during 2017-18 of which Rs161 billion were audited.

Irregularities of Rs59.7 billion were identified due to the negligence and misuse of funds by government officials.

The key finding of the report included 66 instances of irregular expenditures of Rs44.03 billion, 22 instances of unauthorized expenditures of Rs7.3 billion and 23 instances of recoverable Rs2.2 billion.

It has been mentioned that on 10 different instances, officials failed to provide record of Rs2 billion expenditures, while 27 instances of tax evasion and duties worth Rs1.97 billion were identified.

According the report, the government sustained a loss of Rs1.8 billion in eight different projects, while Rs127 million were either misappropriated or miscalculated.

The audit report has also mentioned an additional payment of Rs326 million on 20 different occasions.

Balochistan irrigation department topped the list with Rs9.17 billion irregularities, while Rs7.85 billion anomalies were found in the revenue department, Rs2.96 billion in communication and works, Rs1.68 billion in education, Rs1.16 billion in health, Rs2.40 billion in agriculture and Rs1.41 in mines and mineral.

The report said that 14 provisional departments and four autonomous departments involved in misdeeds.

The auditor general warned of strict action against the officials responsible for the misappropriation of funds and vowed to recover the misused money.

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