Federal government accounts: AGP recovers embezzled Rs 330 billion

The Department of Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) on the directives of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recovered an amount of Rs 330 billion during 2013-18 out of irregularities amounting to Rs 8.276 trillion in the accounts of the federal government. This was revealed in a meeting of the policy board of the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan (DAGP) chaired by the Auditor General Pakistan Javaid Jahangir, informed sources revealed to this correspondent.
According to officials, another amount of Rs 1.156 trillion on account of irregularities has been pointed out in the accounts of provincial governments. According to sources, major reason behind the outstanding amount is stay orders by subordinate judiciary for which the PAC has also requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take necessary steps.
"If the half of the amount is recovered, it will enable Pakistan to almost finance full budget of the 2018-19," the official maintained.
In a recent PAC meeting held under the chairmanship of Syed Khursheed Shah, the committee has written a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to help the AGP in recovering over Rs 5 trillion outstanding against various companies which have taken the cases to the courts and due to stay orders by the court, the government was unable to recover the amount.
On May 3, 2018 Shah directed the secretary PAC to write a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, urging him to direct the subordinate judiciary for early decision of pending cases wherein over Rs 5 trillion of the government were stuck up.
The PAC chairman said this huge amount did not belong to a few individuals but to the state. "We are pleased that the Chief Justice is cleansing the wastages from the country, and it is hoped that after receiving the PAC letter, the Chief Justice would also clear this," he said this while chairing the PAC meeting while examining the audit paras related to the Revenue Division for the year 2016-17.
The PAC directed the AGP and PAC Secretariat to seek details of the pending cases from the Attorney General Office so that a letter from the PAC would be sent to the Chief Justice of Pakistan with a request to direct the subordinate judiciary for early hearing of all cases and decisions so that stuck up amount of over Rs 5 trillion of the government of Pakistan could be recovered. "The Chief Justice of Pakistan be requested to seek the details of the cases pending in the subordinate judiciary and amount involved in these cases and should order for early decisions in the case on war footing," he said.