Audit report shows Ministry of Finance officials violated ECC’s decision. CREATIVE COMMONS
Two-dozen top bureaucrats, serving in Ministry of Finance, have availed about Rs10 million in honorariums for presenting the first budget of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government – a benefit that an audit report has termed irregular.
The Ministry of Finance paid an amount of Rs144.7 million in budget honorariums to its officials, showed the documents of Ministry of Finance and an audit report that the government has not yet laid before parliament.
The audit report for the financial year 2012-13 showed the Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood and Adviser to Finance Ministry Rana Assad Amin were the main beneficiaries of the exercise that the audit believes was irregular.
Out of Rs144.7 million, the audit department has raised objection to over Rs9.9 million that the top bureaucrats distributed among themselves, which it describes as a violation of honorarium policy.
In 1996, the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had decided that a budget honorarium will be given only up to grade 20 officers of Federal Board of Revenue, Planning and Development Division and Ministry of Finance.
Despite audit objections, the financial misdemeanor by top management of the finance ministry continues this year as it is set to announce budget honorariums equivalent to eight basic pays of the officers for preparing the second PML-N budget, according to sources in Ministry of Finance.
According to the AGP report, in 2012-13 the ministry of finance had paid Rs144.7 million in honorarium, of which Rs9.9 million was paid to the officers of basic pay scale 21 and above, against the directives of the ECC.
The AGP has not printed a separate objection of Rs9.9 million irregular payments, as an audit objection of similar nature was printed in its previous report. It has made the objection part of Memorandum for Departmental Accounts Committee.
In 2011-12, the Ministry of Finance had irregularly paid Rs7.9 million in honorarium to officers of grade 2 and 22, according to the audit report.
The report shows that all honorariums were paid without deduction of income tax.
For instance, the basic monthly pay of Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood is Rs121,140. On account of seven honorariums his benefits amounted to Rs847,980. But he was sanctioned Rs975,177 including Rs127,197 as tax on honorarium. Amin got Rs924,301 including Rs120,561 tax on honorariums. The auditors were not sure whether these officials deposited tax back into the kitty.
The report has recommended immediate recovery of taxpayers’ money from senior bureaucrats and recommended that responsibility should also be fixed as to who sanctioned the honorariums.
In its written response to the AGP office, the finance ministry has taken the position that honorarium paid to the officers of grade 21 and above had the approval of the finance minister in his capacity as the ECC chairman.
The AGP has rejected the ministry’s reply and maintained that it was in violation of the ECC decision.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 19th, 2014.
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