ISLAMABAD: Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC), a think tank of Power Division with staff hired at an exorbitant package, has reportedly expressed annoyance at Directorate General (DG) Audit (Power) for sharing audit paras with Secretary Power, setting aside the clarification provided by PPMC, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
In a letter to Director General Audit (Power) Ayesha Siddiq, Managing Director PPMC Abid Lodhi, who according to audit received an additional Rs 0.780 million as member of the PPMC Board, referred to the letter of DG Audit (Power)
of January 8, 2026 on three audit paras for discussion in Departmental Accounts Committee (DAC) and pointed out that the same was communicated to PPMC which is in sheer non-compliance with existing practice as envisaged under the Audit Quality Management Framework for the public sector in Pakistan and such other enabling documents.
READ MORE: Power Planning and Monitoring Company failed to meet key targets: AGP
He brought on record that in letter of December 17, 2025, 23 observations were communicated to PPMC, alongside reminders by audit to which PPMC confirmed the preparation of the requisite responses. Consequently, to PPMC’s surprise, through a letter of December 31, 2025 received at PPMC on January 2, 2026, the audit shared inspection report of PPMC, in utter disregard of protocols, with DG Audit (Power). This raises concerns on the veracity of the audit process and is in blatant disregard of the applicable procedure.
The audit, in its letter of January 1, 2026 converted the observations and directly shared fifteen Audit Paras with two audit paras shared on January 5,2026 out of twenty-three observations as APs to the Secretary Power Division for discussion before DAC without settling the audit findings/ observations and non-scheduling of exit meeting with PPMC prior to conversion into APs.
GM (HR), PPMC personally visited DG Audit (Power) on January 5, 2026 and narrated the discrepancies and the same was confirmed by concerned audit officer to DG Audit Power regarding non-scheduling of exit meeting with PPMC. Upon insistence, DG Audit Power directed the concerned audit officer to conduct online exit meeting with PPMC on immediate basis on January 6, 2026 where PPMC vehemently opposed the procedure adopted by audit team and showed concern with respect to unprofessionalism and disregard to audit procedures.
Even after exit meeting and record/ facts shared by PPMC, neither the audit amended/ revised the findings/ observations of earlier shared seventeen findings/ observations, based on facts and record presented, and instead shared another five findings/ observations as APs with the Secretary Power Division with a copy to PPMC through letters of January 8, 2026 disregarding the replies and the facts presented during exit meeting and without recording the events of the exit meeting.
“We are of the firm belief that the narration of events, facts, concerns, conversion of findings, without considering the presented facts and records, into APs are clearly against the established audit practices, norms and procedures, which is brought on record for corrective measures to be taken by DG Audit Power, requesting dropping of audit paras prior to DAC,” the letter notes.
PPMC contends that the observation is not agreed to in its entirety. Employees serving on deputation were engaged purely as stop-gap arrangements to ensure continuity of operations during the initial and transition phases of PPMC, when in-house capacity was still being developed. It was clarified that the perks and privileges of deputationists were substantially lower than the lump-sum market-based packages approved for regular professional staff, and therefore the alleged financial burden has been overstated.
PPMC further stated that the expenses are paid from its own revenue stream in the form of material inspection fee charged to Discos/ other private sector entities and management fee being charged from Discos and it does not receive any operational or current budgetary support from the Federal Government.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026