The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), the top institution for ensuring public accountability and fiscal transparency in governmental operations, has swept under the carpet the directive of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for a third-party audit of the affairs of AGP office. The consistent delay by the AGP office in complying with the orders of top parliamentary watchdog earned the ire of a parliamentary panel which on Wednesday directed the AGP office to immediately undertake a third-party audit of the appropriation accounts and expenditure of the AGP.
The Convenor of PAC Subcommittee Shafqat Mahmood observed that it was conflict of interest that the AGP officials were holding audit by themselves, adding, "You can't be judge in your own case." Earlier, audit officials said that they did not hire a third-party for audit of the AGP but conducted the audit all by themselves. A representative of the finance ministry told the panel that a director of his ministry moved a summary, proposing audit of the AGP which resulted in transfer of the official and the file could not be processed any further then.
An official of the PAC Secretariat disclosed that the parliamentary panel that probed into allegation against former AGP Akhtar Buland Rana recommended to hold an independent audit of the AGP but the AGP was not ready to hold any such audit for 'reasons best known to him.'
The objective of audit by an independent body was to discourage the incidents of misappropriation and irregularities in the Auditor General of Pakistan, as the committee wanted to purge the AGP of misappropriation in future by undertaking audit. The PAC in August 2014 had constituted a subcommittee to probe allegations against Akhtar Buland Rana, which revealed how the AGP had withdrawn Rs 4.62 million from the exchequer on account of excess salary and privileges in violation of standard rules and regulations.
On Wednesday, the committee also grilled the audit officials for taking honorarium. The ECC in January 2005 and Cabinet Division in 2008 decided that the honorarium is admissible up to the level of section officer and equivalent. But the AGP officials contended that the audit officials were paid honorarium with the permission of finance ministry.
While examining the audit reports of Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) Limited for the year 2010-11, the convener expressed his utter displeasure for inefficiency in establishing the Software Technology Parks (STPs) in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.
The committee directed for submitting biannual reports of the performance of PSEB, besides holding three separate inquiries in one month. The convener remarked, "We have created an organisation which has not delivered anything in 21 years."
The annual grant of PSEB is Rs 86 million and it is earning another Rs 50 million through bandwidth activities and IT companies registration but delivering nothing to the nation, the committee observed.
The committee observed that the management of the board has failed to acquire 6 acres of leasehold land from Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) each at Karachi and Lahore airports for building STPs despite making an advance payment in 2009 on the directives of the then prime minister. The PSEB is still making efforts to conclude negotiations with the CAA to complete acquisition of land.
The convener of the committee said that it is inefficiency on part of the board for not building a single STP during the last eight years and it further requires another 4 years to complete any STP. He termed it an opportunity loss that it could not build a single park which was the sole responsibility of the board.