Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has dissatisfied over the reports of corruption and poor performance of Livestock and Extension Department.
The committee directed the department to further improve its performance and concentrate on research and extension departments so as to enhance the livestock. The meeting was held on Tuesday with Speaker KP Assembly Karamatullah Khan in the chair. It was also attended by its other members Saqibullah Khan Chamkani, Fazal Shakoor, Malik Tehmash Khan and Muhammad Zameen Khan beside Secretaries of KP Assembly and Agriculture Department KP.
The committee took the audit reports of livestock research and development Peshawar and its sub-ordinate offices. The committee took serious notice of the reports about the embezzlement of 400 feed bags at research centre D.I. Khan, after threadbare discussions and deliberations the committee referred the matter to anti-corruption.
The committee was informed that Rs 2.46 million has been misplaced in this case. The committee directed the anti-corruption department to finalise its probe within one week and should be presented to PAC.
The committee also expressed concern over the corruption report of Rs 1.950 million in the same department at DI Khan.
The committee decided to take stern action against the responsible officers and officials. The PAC also ordered that Rs 661,000 be recovered from the vice chancellor Agriculture University Peshawar, who reportedly draws house rent from treasury department despite having official residence.
The committee termed the matter a violation of general financial and HEC rules. The PAC directed to DG Audit Sikandar Khan to make a fresh audit of the case.
It also angered over the non-deposit of Rs 0.2 million in government treasury in the office of Dairy Development Station Paharpur Dera Ismail Khan. The committee also ordered a fresh probe to the matter.
Karamatullah Khan while speaking on different occasions said that Public Accounts Committee being high powered government body was endeavouring hard to make accountability of government departments on various reported cases of financial irregularities and corruption. He was of the view that for good governance and providing maximum relief to the people the accountability process should be continued.