Irregularities found in audit report

Report shows loss of Rs22.052 million was incurred by the Gilgit-Baltistan Public Works Dept.

ISLAMABAD: An audit report presented before a special committee of Public Accounts Committee on Thursday revealed that a loss of Rs22.052 million was incurred by the Gilgit-Baltistan Public Works Department during 2001-2002.

According to the audit report, this loss was a result of the non-recovery and over payment of funds by the department.

The committee meeting was chaired by Member National Assembly Zahid Hamid and discussed the audit paras of 2001-02 related to Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

Losses of Rs8.871 million were incurred by the water and power division of the department due to the non-recovery and non-return of machinery by the Engineer Battalion of the army.

In March 2001, according to the audit report, the executive engineer of water and power division issued machinery to 101 Engineer Battalion, Force Commander Northern Areas, Jutial, on verbal orders of the superintendent engineer. Neither the machinery nor the rent were ever recovered.

The audit officials noted that the act showed undue favour to the client and unsatisfactory financial control. Officials of Kashmir and G-B Affairs division informed the committee that a letter has been written to secretary defence for early recovery of the dues.

The report further indicated that a loss of Rs3.14 million was incurred due to the overpayment by the executive engineer of water and power division. The audit officials observed that the department unduly favoured the contractor, which reflects its inability to run effective financial controls.

The report further shows non-recovery of Rs4.06 million on account of electricity charges. The audit officials stated in the reports that the department could not effectively recover dues for electricity and the violation of the standing rules and regulation, which resulted into the non-recovery of the said amount.

Moreover, the reports show an irregular payment of Rs4.501 million to contractors by the building and road division.

The payment was made on account of extra item titled cartage of earth, building rubbish, etcetera.

No provisions were admissible for this overhead, the audit report said, adding that the payment of inadmissible items reflected once again the undue favour to the contractor and existence of loose financial control.

The audit report also points out an overpayment of Rs1.48 million by acceptable tenders above the permissible limit. The audit report said that the act reflected the tendency of the building and road division to exceed their delegated authority.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2010.