Audit review: 55 years on, irregularities continue to go unaddressed

PAC, works department accuse each other of corruption as not much work is done.

KARACHI:

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairperson, Saleem Raza Jalbani, informed the media on Tuesday that some audit paras involving major irregularities in government accounts have not been verified since the time of General Ayub Khan.

“You will be shocked to know that even after 55 years, these paras have not been verified as officials of the departments have yet to present the records to settle them,” said Jalbani, adding that he had now asked his staff to list down these audit paras to resolve the matter amicably.



Chairing a meeting to review the audit of the works and services department for 2008-09, he remarked that officials of the department have not learnt a lesson from earlier mistakes and continue with substandard work by building poor quality roads and government buildings.

The officials of works and services department, defending themselves, disclosed how they are pressured by ministers and influential politicians. “At the time of renovating government offices and residences, different demands emerge from ministers who ask us to focus on their offices and residences,” said a senior officer in works and services department, unaware of the presence of journalists in the meeting.

“You know the media is covering this event, please be careful with what you say,” said the chairperson. Upon hearing this, the bureaucrat tried to cover up quickly. “It is legal,” he said. “We later send the revised estimates.”

Heated arguments

The meeting also witnessed heated arguments between the officials of PAC and those of the works and services department. The works and services secretary, Qazi Shahid Parvez, alleged the officials of audit department don’t verify paras even after having proper records.  “We produce the records against our expenses but they raise unnecessary objections,” he said, adding that the audit director-general should let them know what his staff require; in a thinly-disguised allegation of corruption and bribery. “Please let us know if you require something else in the name of official records,” he said. “We are ready to give them the actual records, show the document or ... whatever they want.”

This did not go down well with the chairperson, who enquired what the secretary had meant by the comment, to which the secretary smiled and replied, “I mean the director-general should inform us beforehand of the records that the auditors need”.

The audit director-general, Ghulam Akbar Sohu, chose not to speak during this exchange of words. The chairperson decided to divert the issue before it blew out of hand and addressed the audit officials. “Why do you people bring up only specific paras,” he asked. “It seems some issues are ‘settled’ at the time of the audit.”

Briefing the media, the PAC chairman said that only 11 of the 20 paras were discussed. Six paras pertaining to an amount of Rs485 million were settled as the officials of the works and services department were able to produce records satisfying the PAC members. Meanwhile, five audit paras worth Rs442 million were deferred as officials were yet to show records of how the amount was utilised. The PAC formed sub-committees to investigate into the matter and report by the department’s next meeting.

Earlier, the audit DG, while briefing the meeting, had said that the officials of the department had paid an excess amount of Rs67 million to a contractor, over and above the sanctioned budget without the approval of the competent authorities. The secretary responded that they had spent Rs60 million on the ministers’ residences and offices and had gained the approval later.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2014.