Irregularities and mismanagement

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has uncovered an astounding Rs375 trillion in financial irregularities and mismanagement across federal government entities in the previous fiscal year. The unprecedented figure highlights the abject failure of a government that has made austerity a core policy to actually pay any respect to the taxpayer's hard-earned money.

At the heart of this report is a disturbing insight into the extent of the government's inability to meet its most basic responsibilities to its citizens — only 13% of public funds were directed toward socioeconomic development and public welfare, while an overwhelming 87% was consumed by debt servicing and interest payments.

Given the already tiny share of the budget dedicated to the people, the AGP report is even more worrying — Rs284 trillion in procurement issues, Rs85.6 trillion in mismanaged civil works and Rs2.5 trillion in unprocessed receivables. Meanwhile, Rs513.87 billion in supplementary grants were issued without parliamentary approval, suggesting that the government does not even respect Parliament, despite comfortably controlling both houses.

Unfortunately, the amounts could just as well have been tenfold higher, and the end result would remain the same. Whatever the promises on the campaign trail, once elected, every government has shown an uncanny inability to address financial irregularities, apart from harassing a handful of people determined to be loyal to the previous government.

Though we won't get our hopes up, it is time for the parliament, especially the Public Accounts Committee, to exercise its authority to hold entities accountable. Committee meetings and working groups are all well and good, but there must also be a commitment to transparency, stronger internal controls and consequences for negligence. Without urgent action, these audits will remain a recurring record of failure, and the people of Pakistan will continue to pay the price.