2016-17 and 2017-18: Irregularities unearthed in PM's global development plan

The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has unearthed irregularities of billions of rupees in the Prime Minister's Global Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18, a time period when Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was in power.

In its special audit into the programme, the AGP said that it audited some 19,839 schemes of the programme having budget outlays of Rs 34.901 billion. These schemes were executed by different government departments, including Pak PWD, Discos, SNGPL and SSGCL.

The audit observed that 305 schemes of Rs 1.75 billion were awarded without open tenders. Payments of 258 schemes of Rs 1.65 billion were made without recording the detailed measurement of work. In 23 schemes of Rs 419 million, expenditure was booked without supporting record of making payments to the contractors. In 107 cases involving Rs 2.472 billion, expenditure was incurred without mandatory technical sanction. In six cases involving Rs 6.834 billion, schemes were approved and paid without the involvement of the respective communities. The PC-IV of 3,763 schemes of Rs 4.648 billion were not prepared to formally close the projects, the audit report revealed.

"Audit recommends that above cited instances of violations may be inquired and responsibilities may be fixed for: a) violation of Public Procurement Rules; b) payments made without recording detailed measurements in measurement book and; c) booking of expenditure without supporting documents for contractor payments," the AGP observes in the report.

In February 2016, the federal government had decided to incorporate the United Nations SDGs into its own 'National Development Goals' on the pretext of providing development opportunities to less developed areas through 'direct targeted intervention' and launched Prime Minister's Global Sustainable Development Goals Achievement Programme.

The Cabinet Division had approached the AGP for the special audit of the programme for financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18.