‘In violation of rules’: Committee to investigate irrigation dept spending

Committee also sought immediate recovery of Rs4.4 million from shops constructed in limits of Warsak Canal division

PESHAWAR:

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has formed a subcommittee to investigate the spending of Rs18.3 million by various offices of irrigation department’s Warsak Canal division in violation of rules.

The PAC met on Wednesday with MPA Shaukat Yousafzai in the chair to discuss audit paras in the irrigation department from 2011-2012. An audit para is any irregularity found by auditing authorities in the utilisation of funds allocated to government departments and units.

The committee expressed annoyance over the spending of Rs18.3 million on renovations in various offices of the department in violation of set rules and formed a subcommittee headed by PML-N lawmaker Arbab Akbar Hayat to investigate the matter.

According to a statement issued from the Assembly Secretariat, the PAC also directed relevant officials to expedite the recovery of irrigation charges and to chalk out a practical framework for it in light of the committee’s earlier directives.

The committee also sought the immediate recovery of Rs4.4 million from shops constructed in the limits of Warsak Canal division.

Another committee was also formed under Mufti Syed Janan to investigate tampering with tender contracts of two projects in Warsak Canal division which caused collectively losses of over Rs1.48 million to the provincial exchequer.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2015.