ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has detected audit observations amounting to Rs9,274.666 million, which also included recoverable of Rs341.944 million in the accounts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its attached departments.

In its audit report on the accounts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the audit year 2019-2020, which was tabled in the National Assembly on Friday, the AGP mentioned that observations amounting to Rs9,274.666 million were raised as a result of the audit.

This amount also includes recoverable of Rs341.944 million as pointed out by the audit.

The auditors detected reported cases of fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation amounting Rs53.091 million.

Rs469.274 million of HR/employees relates irregularities, procurement-related irregularities Rs4,839.300 million, management of accounts with commercial banks Rs372.591 million, value for money and service delivery issues of Rs1,484.445 million, and others Rs2,055.965 million.

The AGP office conducted 41 audits up till now, which includes one Financial Attest Audit, Compliance with Authority Audit of four local formations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 30 Pakistan Missions abroad, four PIA stations abroad, one DG Hajj Jeddah, and one Performance Audit utilising 10,058 mandays.

The achievement in terms of planned audits and mandays was 78.43 percent and 98.56 percent respectively.

During the audit, the accounts relating to the financial years 2016-2019 (and in some cases previous years as well) were scrutinised by selecting transactions on test check basis.

During audit, a number of cases pertaining to financial indiscipline, poor internal controls and violation of prescribed rules/regulations etc. were observed, which were reported to the respective secretaries/administrative heads, seeking departmental responses, and for holding meetings of the Departmental Accounts Committees (DACs).

After completion of the prescribed audit exercise, cases of serious nature were selected for printing in the Audit Report.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020