Secret funds saga: Ministry refuses to give NCMC spending record

The refusal is in violation of the orders of the Supreme Court and the advice of the Ministry of Law.

LAHORE:

Interior Ministry has refused to provide the record of secret funds spending to the audit team despite the orders of the Supreme Court and the advice of the Ministry of Law, official documents available with The Express Tribune revealed.

Interior Ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) has spent over Rs425 million from its secret fund in the last five years. According to the official figures, an amount of Rs50 million was spent in financial year 2008-2009, Rs110 million in 2009-2010, Rs49 million in 2010-2011, Rs96 million in 2011-2012; while an amount of Rs120 million has been used in the financial year 2012-2013.



The contents of the letter – issued on October 11, 2013, with the stamp and signature of Director General Audit to the Secretary Interior – said that the staff of the NCMC told the audit team it had no vouchers to present to them.

The letter said the audit commenced on August 26, 2013, but record of the NCMC was not provided to the audit team despite issuance of a number of reminders and provision of a copy of Supreme Court orders dated July 8, 2013.

“Instead the Ministry [of Interior]sought advice from the Ministry of Law in pursuance of which the Ministry of Interior vide letter No1/8/2013 C&A dated October 1, 2013, requested this office (DG Audit) to conduct audit of the accounts of Secret Service Expenditure (SSE) of the NCMC. In response the DG Audit deputed an audit team headed by Audit Officer Ghulam Fareed Khokhar.”

According to the letter, the audit team once again visited the ministry, met with the NCMC director operations and remained in the ministry for three days from October 7 to October 9.



“During this period the management raised various questions about the procedure of conducting of audit but did not provide auditable record .The audit team was prevented from meeting with the NCMC director general on the pretext that he was busing in meetings,” the letter said.

On October 9, the NCMC director operations insisted that the audit should be conducted according to the provisions of Serial No37 (v) of Appendix 8 of  General Financial Rules (GFR) Vol-I – notwithstanding the fact that the Supreme Court has declared the above rules illegal, unconstitutional and of no legal effect vide its order dated July 8, 2013.

The audit team also informed the NCMC management that the procedure of audit of Secret Service Expenditure (SSE) had been further elaborated by the Ministry of Finance vide Letter No3(12)-R 12/75 dated April 29, 1976, the letter further disclosed.

However on October 9, the staff of the NCMC told the audit team that they had no vouchers to present to them.

“This Office (DG Audit) is of the considered opinion that the refusal to provide record of Secret Service Expenditure (SSE) for audit is a violation of the orders of the Supreme Court and also a refusal to accept the advice of the Ministry of Law and Justice,” observed the director general audit.

He further wrote that the matter would not only be placed before the Public Accounts Committee but would also be brought to the notice of the Supreme Court.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2013.