Irregularities in arms licences' fees: Ministry unable to trace out missing amount of Rs 515.5 million, PAC body told

The Ministry of Interior has been unable to find missing amount of Rs 515.5 million in last five years which was collected through fee for 88,838 arms licences issued from March 2008 to June 2009, Public Accounts Committee's sub-committee was informed on Tuesday.
The committee meeting was held with Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang in the chair to examine the appropriation of accounts for the year 2008-09 and audit reports for the year 2007-08 and 2009-10. The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) observed that new arms licenses during the said period were issued under section 11 (b) of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance 1965. The fee for these licenses was estimated at R 515.5 million which was to be deposited to Government Treasury. "The receipts were not reconciled with the treasury. In the absence of verification and reconciliation, there was every possibility of issuance of arms licenses against fake challans," the audit report states.
Additional Secretary Ministry of Interior, Imtiaz Tajwar contended federal treasury office Islamabad has confirmed that Rs 226.8 million had been deposited in the jurisdiction of Islamabad and Rawalpindi from March, 2008 to June 2009. However, the Audit report objected that the ministry did not clarify whether the receipt related to the arms licenses for the period indicated by Audit. A Committee Member Sheikh Rasheed claimed that arms licenses which were not revalidated in last one year would be considered illegal, as the ministry has not been revalidating the arms licenses for last one year.
The Ministry of Interior disclosed on Tuesday that during nine months of current fiscal year, they have been able to revalidate only 50 per cent of army license booklets and would be completed by end of June 2014. Imtiaz further urged that token for 73,991 arms licenses were issued and license card of 68,258 were printed. Besides, he said that the Sindh Government in co-operation with NADRA is about to initiate the process of revalidation of arms licenses, whereas, the issuance of licenses in Punjab has been initiated. Giving further details, he said 21,913 licenses were of prohibited bore (PB) and 39,470 were of non-prohibited.
He further revealed that 126,601 arms licenses were issued during 2002 till ban was imposed on the licenses. Out of 60,387 arms licenses booklets, 35,888 were revalidated. The committee showed its dissatisfaction over the argument of Ministry of Interior and directed the ministry to come back within two months along with the policy of issuance of arms licenses and details of licenses so far issued.
The committee directed the Ministry of Interior to conduct an inquiry against those who illegally kept Rs 41.8 million worth of the government receipt in commercial bank accounts. These receipts accounts were also not reflected in the budget of the ICT Police during the year 2008-09.
The committee further declined to settle appropriation accounts of Rs 3 billion supplementary grant for 2008-09. Officials of Ministry of Interior argued that less allocation was made at the time of grant of budget and revision of pay scales with effect from July 2008, the provision of which did not exist in the budget estimates at that time. Member Committee Rasheed Gondil said that the budgetary estimates were revised as massive recruitments were made in the ministry at that time. The officials of Ministry failed to give satisfactory answers to the queries of the members.