Rs40 bn alleged irregularities in Covid operations: PAC, not govt, competent to scrutinise, settle, reject audit paras

ISLAMABAD: Only the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly is empowered to take up and settle-- or refer to a concerned investigating agency for action-- the objections raised in reports by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP). The government, meanwhile, cannot trash the reports or dismiss them as inconsequential.

The AGP in its report has detected Rs40 billion irregularities in the operations for COVID-19 activities. After keeping this report concealed for nearly six months, Pakistan gave in to the pressure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by releasing the audit report of expenditures incurred on the coronavirus threat, revealing over Rs40 billion irregularities in the operations.

The AGP’s findings showed mis-procurement, payments to ineligible beneficiaries, cash withdrawal through fake biometrics and procurements of substandard goods by the Utility Stores Corporation for consumption. The release of the report by the finance ministry is one of the five prior actions that the IMF had asked Pakistan to implement if it wanted to get the $1 billion loan tranche by January next year. The auditors attempted to scrutinize Rs354.3 billion expenses but did not get all the records, the report showed. From the record of expenses and procurements available, the auditors have unearthed Rs40 billion in irregularities.

A few days later, the federal cabinet dismissed the audit report which hinted at these irregularities in COVID-19 expenditures, the vaccination process and Ehsaas relief programme. “The cabinet rejected the audit report and asked three relevant organizations to give their presentations in this regard,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said. “The finance ministry had already rejected the audit report and Ehsaas programme in charge and prime minister’s aide Dr Sania Nishtar had also clarified the position of her organization.”

According to the rules and the standard practice, when the AGP carries out the audit of the accounts of any department, it seeks clarifications and explanations where required from senior officials. If it is not satisfied, it notes its objections in its reports, which are taken up by the departmental audit committees for settlement of the audit paras.

The paras, which remain unresolved during this process, are sent to the PAC in the shape of a report. The PAC takes the reports into consideration one by one, department-wise, and summons the officials of the concerned departments to its meetings. Most of the objections are thus removed as the officers succeed in explaining the positions in a proper way.

However, where the PAC finds that the unsettled paras entailed corruption or waste of public funds, it refers the matters to the Federal Investigation Agency, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) etc., with the direction to proceed against the delinquent officials on the charges of corruption. As a result of these proceedings, several billions of rupees are also recovered and the cases are closed then and there.

It is not in the power or jurisdiction of the government or any of its organizations to consign to the dustbin the audit praras, which have to be sorted out in the process stipulated in the rules. Several subcommittees of the PAC remain engaged throughout the year even when the Covid-19 pandemic had been at its peak in reviewing the AGP reports.

Rule 203 of the Rules of Procedure & Conduct of Business in the National Assembly says the PAC will examine the accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by the National Assembly for the expenditure of the government, the annual finance accounts of the government, the report of the AGP and such other matters as the finance minister may refer to it.

In scrutinizing the appropriation accounts of the government and the AGP reports thereon it will be the duty of the PAC to satisfy itself that the moneys shown in the accounts as having been disbursed were legally available for, and applicable to, the service or purpose to which they have been applied or charged.

The PAC sees that the expenditure conforms to the authority which governs it; and that every re-appropriation has been made in accordance with the provisions made in this behalf under rules framed by the finance ministry.

Article 171 of the Constitution says the AGP reports relating to the accounts of the federal government will be submitted to the president, who will cause them ‘to be laid before the parliament’ and its reports relating to the accounts of a province will be submitted to the governor, who will cause them to be laid before the provincial assembly.