PAC unearths irregularities in educational institutions

PESHAWAR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly met in Abbottabad on Wednesday and directed the sub-committee to check embezzlement in Hazara University in Mansehra and report back.
Chaired by Speaker Asad Qaiser, the PAC meeting was also attended by members of provincial assembly Syed Jafar Shah, Syed Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha, Mufti Said Janan, Qurban Ali and Idrees Khattak, said an official handout on Wednesday.
The meeting discussed the audit accounts for the year 2007-08 and 2008-09 of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, Hazara, Peshawar and Bannu universities and took certain decisions. The committee expressed displeasure over the spending of Rs 16, 26, 000 by the Hazara University, Mansehra, in 2008-09 without any open tender. The committee also took notice of paying Rs83. 2 million advance to a project director from the amount collected under the head of fees of students by the University of Science and Technology, Bannu.
The committee was informed that the matter is under comprehensive probe and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is also investigating it. The committee expressed indignation at the absence of the vice-chancellor of the Peshawar University and the language of the letter addressed to the speaker by the registrar of the university. The members believed that it was all against the privilege of the members of the committee. The committee summoned the officers concerned for the upcoming meeting of the committee. The assembly speaker said that in view of the prevailing circumstances, the conveyance, medical, house-rent and hard area-allowances required a review but he also agreed with the audit objections in this regard.
He said in view of the ground realities, we have to get rid of the limitations of rules and regulations and whenever required, we will review it within the framework of law. Besides others, Assembly Additional Secretary Amjad Ali Khan, Additional Secretary, Israr Muhammad, Director Audit Asadullah Khan, Deputy Secretary Taj Muhammad ,DG Audit,Javed Iqbal and others attended the meeting.