‘Flouting the law’: AGP raises doubts over chief statistician’s appointment

The findings of the audit report may carry adverse implications for the country’s fiscal framework

ISLAMABAD:

The incumbent chief statistician, Asif Bajwa, is holding office in violation of an act of parliament as he assumed office without taking oath from the then president Asif Ali Zardari, says the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan.

According to the audit report on the affairs of Statistics Division, Bajwa assumed the office on January 22, 2013, but he took the oath of the office on July 23, 2013, from the then acting president Nayyer Hussain Bokhari.

The findings of the AGP office, which have been conveyed to parliament, may carry adverse implications for the country’s fiscal framework, as all the decisions taken by Bajwa from January 2013 to July 2013 can also be deemed “irregular and unauthorised”.

The most significant decision of that period was rebasing the economy from 1999-2000 to 2005-06 aimed at making it more representative by adding the values of goods and services in calculations that had remained outside the ambit.

Bajwa in his capacity as the chief statistician of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) also chaired the meetings of the National Accounts Committee (NAC) and gave approvals to the economic growth rates for the fiscal years of 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

On the basis of revised base of the economy, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz made the country’s economic framework for the next five years and determined the budgetary targets with the International Monetary Fund.

“The Section 14 (2) of the General Statistics Reorganisation Act, 2011 states that the chief statistician before entering office, shall make, before the president of Pakistan, an oath of the office and non-disclosure,” the audit report states while citing the act of parliament.

Sources close to the ministry of finance, revenue and Statistics said that former president Zardari had been requested to take the oath from the chief statistician but he refused. However, this did not stop Bajwa from joining the office. The statutory requirement was fulfilled only when Zardari was on a foreign trip and Bokhari agreed to take the oath, they added.

“The payment of pay and allowances and decisions taken before taking oath were irregular and unauthorised”, the auditors observed. The auditors have sought recovery of Rs2.5 million that was paid to Bajwa in pay and allowances for the period of six months.

When contacted, Bajwa said that a summary has been moved to the finance ministry with a plea that the period in which he served without taking oath should be considered as ‘acting’. So far the ministry has not made a decision, he added.

However, according to legal experts, even the acting chief statistician will have to take the oath from the president. Further, there is no provision of acting chief statistician in the General Statistics Reorganisation Act. They said the actions for the period in question can only be condoned by the Parliament by introducing amendment in the law.

The audit observations came at a time when two federal secretaries are serving in Statistics Division, resulting into overlap of activities. Under the General Statistics Act of 2011, the chief statistician is also ex-official secretary to the federal government. In addition to that, Shahid Rasheed is also serving as federal secretary of the Statistics Division.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2014.