Audit report exposes KP Ehtesab Commission’s incompetency

PESHAWAR: The audit of the financial matters of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ehtesab Commission (KPEC) has exposed the incompetence of the provincial anti-graft body to run its affairs in appropriate way.

This not only caused losses of millions of rupees to the provincial exchequer but also wasted valuable time in pursuing cases that didn’t even an offence under the Ehtesab law.

A source, who shared the report of the KPEC with this scribe, said the KPEC by discharging its affairs in an untidy way has justified to an extent the incumbent government’s decision to wrap it up.

The source disclosed that some of the high-ranking employees of the commission continued to draw salaries even after reaching the age of superannuation.

The audit report revealed that the KPEC management failed to provide the minutes of the executive board’s meetings, team-wise and the department-wise complaints received and processed, details of complaints referred by the provincial government and other departments, complains received against Ehtesab Commission Employees, action taken on human resource (HR) Report, personal files of the first director general, Lt Gen Hamid Khan, Sikandar Khan, assistant director (AD) investigation, Bashir Khan (AD) Investigation, lkhtiar GuI (AD) Investigation and Zar Nawaz Khan, law officer till October 15. It showed the manner in which the commission was being run, the source lamented.

The audit report also revealed that some officers were retained despite unsatisfactory performance under KPEC’s own law which states that the appointment on contract was liable to termination without any further notice in case the charge of misconduct proved against the officers.

It was revealed additional director investigation that retired Colonel Saifullah, was appointed on contract for Rs300,000 per month in 2014.

The KPEC director general, while writing his Performance Evaluation Report for 2014-15 had written, “I regret the day he was selected as a member of Ehtesab Commission. He has issues with other team members and the prosecution. His investigations always were with flaws which had to be corrected.”

The director general had also questioned his integrity and in pen picture he recorded that “Emotionally (the officer) was not very stable and had a poor behaviour with co-workers.”

The report said that despite all this the officer was retained in service till date (October 2018) and a sum of Rs11.400 million had been paid to him on account of his salary beside other facilities.

The review of accounts record of the KPEC by the auditors revealed that it had drawn Rs853.182 million during 2014-18 and utilized Rs537.412 million in this period.

The audit report revealed that KPEC in violation of the stated policy of the provincial government opened current account in Profit and Loss Sharing (PLS) bank account for transaction, thus causing a loss of Rs13.004 million in only this one account.

The KPEC during 2015-16 was allowed by the provincial government to open a current account. However, the audit held that proper accounting system was required to have been approved from the Controller General of Accounts but no such approval was obtained, therefore, operation of designated account and incurring expenditure of Rs537.412 million was financial irregularity.

The audit held that according to the provincial government policy it was required to open a PLS account for its funds. However, it contrarily opened current account, which was not only violation of the government policy, but also resulted in a loss of Rs13.004 million to the public kitty.

All self-accounting entities report monthly summarized financial information with supporting schedules. The KPEC incurred expenditure of Rs537.412 million during the financial years from 2015 to 2018, but only budget figures were reconciled with Accountant General and other information such as monthly summarized financial information with supporting schedules was not provided.

The KPEC in 2015-16 financial year received Rs221.007 million, but it could utilise Rs196.577 million only. In 2016-17 fiscal years, it received Rs260.151 million and utilised Rs179.187 million. For 2017-18, it received Rs339.559 million and utilised Rs161.647 million.

As a whole the KPEC received Rs853.182 million during the last three financial years, but it could utilise Rs537.412 million only.

The audit also held that huge losses were caused through irregular use of 12 vehicles in which three vehicles remained in use of former Director General, retired Lt Gen Hamid Khan, who had quit after developing differences with the provincial government, and also the incumbent Director General, retired Brigadier Sajjad Ahmed.

The audit report also found fault with the cases the KPEC probed during last five years. It suggested that under the Ehtesab Act, it could initiate investigation or inquiry into any incident or an omission of a person or accused that reasonably appears to constitute an offence provided the director general exercises its jurisdiction with respect to a project only when it involves an amount of Rs50 million and above. In course of inquiry, if it is found that the project is less than Rs50 million, the matter is to be referred to the Anti-Corruption Establishment for further inquiry or investigation.

The audit report said a review of record revealed that the KPEC had filed 29 references in the Ehtesab Courts involving financial mismanagement of Rs3,724 billion. However, when the references were examined it was noticed that monetary value in 10 cases was less than Rs50 million.