Govt to put 224 state gifts up for sale

LAHORE: As part of its austerity drive, the federal government is offering 224 state gifts for auction received by state functionaries (from presidents down to deputy secretaries) during foreign tours, an official letter sent by the cabinet division to all federal ministries and chief secretaries said.

Only civilian officers of the federal cadre and officers of armed forces will be eligible to purchase these gifts via sealed bids, says a document available with The Express Tribune.

The gifts include: watches, carpets, swords, daggers, gold items, jewelry, guns, pistols, crockery, garments and shields.

The reserve prices of all items have been calculated by the cabinet division and range between a maximum of Rs670,900 for a gold dagger and a minimum of Rs50 for various shields and insignias.

Previously, such gifts could only be purchased by former presidents, prime ministers and select few politicians on reserved price.

Some top bureaucrats were also given the opportunity to buy these gifts after paying nominal prices which was 25 per cent of the assessed value of such items before 2006.

Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz reduced the reserve price of these gifts to 15 per cent in 2006 without getting approval by the cabinet of new rules under which gifts with a market value of less than Rs10,000 can be retained by an official for free.

Shaukat Aziz took advantage of this relaxation and retained hundreds of gifts with wrong assessment of value, said an official of cabinet division on condition of anonymity.

In December 2009, after taking serious notice of this discrepancy, chairperson of the Senate’s standing committee on cabinet secretariat Shahid Hussain Bugti recommended an increase in the payment for a gift from the existing 15 per cent to 50 per cent of the reserved price.

The cabinet division has directed all officers interested in buying the items to apply for the purchase of these articles till 18 October.

These articles will be put on display for inspection between October 11 and 13 at room No 1045 of the cabinet division.

Officers of the provincial cadres have criticised the move and called for holding an open auction, allowing all citizens of the country to participate. They said that such a policy would help raise more funds.

According to media reports, Shaukat Aziz had whisked away 986 such gifts ‘cheaply’ to London. He paid the reserved price for just 736 items while the remaining gifts were retained without depositing any money, says a report submitted to the standing committee.

An official of the cabinet division said all valuable gifts had been retained by the presidents and prime ministers because the reserve price was calculated at 15 per cent of the original price of such items. He said the remaining articles, considered to be of no value, were being put for auction under the banner of the government’s austerity drive was a ploy to earn money from redundant articles.

As many as 13 Pakistani presidents and prime ministers, from Gen Ziaul Haq to Gen Musharraf and from Prime Minister Mohammad Khan Junejo to Shaukat Aziz, quietly took 3,039 expensive gifts worth Rs160 million to their homes. President Asif Zardari is said to have taken away more gifts within a year of his presidency.

Others, including Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Rafiq Tarar, and former prime ministers Mohammad Khan Junejo, Benazir Bhutto, Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain also retained such gifts.

According to the official, Gen Ayub Khan was the only ruler who deposited all expensive gifts in the treasury. The list showed Ayub Khan received a total of 30 gifts between October 1958 and March 1969. But he sent all those gifts to the cabinet division. The other functionary, who also deposited all his gifts in the treasury, was Balakh Sher Mazari, a caretake prime ministers who was the head of the government from April-May 1993.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2010.