K-P departments told not to buy ‘luxury’ vehicles

Luxury vehicles had been purchased during the 2010 floods, which drew the PAC’s ire.

ABBOTABAD:

All government offices were barred from purchasing “luxury vehicles” by the provincial Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in a meeting here on Wednesday.

Officials of the PAC discussed the audit objections of the Public Health Engineering Department and Provincial Relief Commissioner for the fiscal year 2009-10. The committee took notice of the report that states that vehicles equipped “with all modern facilities” were purchased for the government officers engaged in extending services to the flood-hit areas of the province. The meeting was headed by PAC acting Chairman Saqibullah Khan Chamkani.

Chamkani lamented that while the people of the ravaged areas were facing crises, the department spent millions of rupees on “luxury vehicles”. He questioned why the vehicles already available with the departments were not used to extend relief efforts.

The committee agreed that the use of all luxury cars in the government office would be avoided in future. If needed, “ordinary vehicles” would be purchased from the provincial exchequer.

The audit objection of purchase of new luxury vehicles were dropped by the PAC with unanimous decision that such a practice will not be allowed in future and those responsible would be taken to task.

Members of the meeting also criticised the concerned authorities for not preparing the complete record of disbursement of compensation worth Rs770 million among the internally displaced persons especially on account of loss of life and property during the year 2008-09. They added that the lists and tables prepared were handwritten and carried no official stamp or signature.

The PAC scolded the department officials present on the occasion and asked them to complete and submit the record to the audit department within the next three weeks. The audit department was asked to submit the record to the PAC within the next 45 days.

K-P Assembly Secretary Amanullah Khan, Additional Secretary Amjad Ali and Deputy Secretary Inamullah Khan attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2012.