Objection settled: PAC goes soft on use of Hajj pilgrims fund for luxury cars

Secretary asked to submit a certificate that vehicles will only be used to facilitate pilgrims.

ISLAMABAD:

In an uncharacteristic move, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has effectively condoned a glaring irregularity of using the Hajj Pilgrims Fund for buying luxury vehicles for the use of ministers and bureaucrats.

Though such an audit objection would normally incur the wrath of the public funds watchdog, officials of the ministry of religious affairs got only a light scolding, and the ministry and audit department seemed to join hands to sweep the matter under the rug. The PAC let the Hajj authorities off the hook with only a warning and demanded a certificate that these vehicles will be used to facilitate the pilgrims in the future.

The ministry of religious affairs’ Directorate-General Hajj, Jeddah, had purchased four luxury vehicles in 2006-07 for the use of the then minister for religious affairs, director-general Hajj and one each for director and deputy-director, according to the audit objection.

The expenditures of Saudi Riyal 385,000 or Rs6.2 million were incurred out of the pilgrims fund. In fact, the purchases were made without even calling open tenders.

This was the first time that PAC has taken up such an issue. In the past, all such cases where vehicles were irregularly purchased had been referred to the finance ministry for regularisation and if the finance ministry refused, the cases were referred to the office of prime minister for a decision. Even if the premier returns such cases, the PAC fixes responsibility on charges of violating rules and misuse of taxpayers’ money.



However, as the PAC took up the audit report for the year 2006-07 for discussion, Director Foreign Audit Mr Chatta said all audit objections in the report have been recommended for settlement. He did not highlight any audit objection for discussion.

Initially, PAC Chairman Nadeem Afzal Chan pointed out the case of irregular expenditures on purchase of vehicles and asked whether this can be done under the rules. Both the Director Foreign Audit and Secretary Religious Affairs Azam Samma stated that the pilgrims fund can be used for purchasing the vehicles.

“My staff is taking a lenient view. The rules do not allow use of pilgrims’ funds to purchase vehicles for official use,” clarified Auditor-General of Pakistan Akhtar Buland Rana.

He stressed that the director was setting a bad precedent by recommending the objection for settlement.



It was for the second time that an audit official recommended an objection for settlement that has merits for discussions. Earlier in June, the Director-General Commercial Audit had tabled Rs295.5 million audit objections for settlement without discussing the merits of the case with the PAC.

After remaining unsuccessful in convincing the PAC that the vehicles were used to facilitate pilgrims, the secretary religious affairs conceded that these vehicles are used by visiting ministers and parliamentarians. He said there were 22 vehicles at the disposal of the Jeddah Directorate.

Chan confronted the Secretary and said that he personally knew that all these vehicles were in the use of bureaucrats. “The ministry has breached the trust of pilgrims,” said Yasmeen Rehman of PPP.

Yet, at the end, all the PAC’s observations turned out to be just rhetoric. Since the secretary has successfully managed the Hajj operations, the PAC takes a lenient view and settles the audit objection, said Chan in his concluding remarks.

While also overlooking the secretary’s wrong statement on use of vehicles, the PAC directed him to submit a certificate that, in the future, these vehicles will only be used to facilitate pilgrims.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2012.