By By our correspondent
The Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended on Wednesday that the Sindh chief minister and governor look into the encroachment of 40 acres of agriculture department in Karachi, which was reserved for setting up a coconut research institute.
Agriculture Secretary Agha Jan Akhtar had said that it was a “closed chapter” now because the Sindh High Court had given a judgment in 1998in favour of private owners. PAC Chairman Sardar Jam Tamachi said, however, that the fact that officials did not file an appeal before the Supreme Court should be looked into. He observed that this prime land was worth billions of rupees and the officials showed grave negligence. He said that it has been noted that sometimes, officials deliberately did not pursue government cases properly for some obvious reasons. “This is a matter of great injustice,” he added.
The PAC, while reviewing the audit of the agriculture department for the years 2005-06 and 2004-05, also drew attention towards the possible misuse of bulldozers. Jam Tamachi hinted at the possibility that the department’s bulldozers might have been used by influential people for cultivating occupied forest lands.
He also suggested that the CM and chief secretary hold an inquiry into the “perpetual loss” of bulldozers, because successive targets had not been achieved. He said that they should look into the possibility of giving special packages or “golden handshakes” to employees to avoid losses.
Akhtar said that the department had around 50 to 52 bulldozers, which were 17 years old. He said that expenditure on staff was Rs30 million, while revenue generated through bulldozers stood at Rs9 million. He said that the government provide subsidies, and they therefore charged Rs75 per hour, while private operators could charge up to Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 per hour for renting out bulldozers.
An official of the department disclosed that they were planning to install tracker systems on bulldozers to prevent possible misuse.
Jam Tamachi instructed that a letter be written to all ministers to attend the PAC meeting during audit reviews of their departments to know the state of affairs.
The PAC asked the Anti-Corruption Establishment to conduct an inquiry into the possible loss of Rs3.1 million, arising out of the purchase of cotton seeds to be sown in cotton-prohibited districts of Larkana, Jacobabad and Shikarpur.
Akhtar said that a decision was taken at a “high level” to convert rice-growing areas into cotton-growing areas by the past government. He further said that this decision was wrong.
The PAC asked the Planning and Development Department to verify which PC-1 was original. This issue was raised when the audit official said that two PC-1 has been presented for the same scheme, which created “doubts”.
Under the scheme, costly machinery was imported, and three people were supposed to get training from abroad for running them as per the PC-1. Sindh Audit Deputy Director Amjad Gill pointed out that another PC-1 has been shown to them, which revealed “many changes”. He said that the second PC-1 did not contain any provision for training. He said that one PC-1 mentioned that up to Rs2.5 million will be generated through this scheme but the other PC-1 did not mention it.
Akhtar contended that this was not a case of “forgery”. He said that the PC-1 contained the provision of training but it was not provided, because the equipment that was purchased was so expensive that no money was left for training from abroad. He said that the department could not change the PC-1. An agriculture department official, Dr Atta Soomro, stood up and said that the document of PC-1 was prepared by him in 2003 but it was not approved, to which the Sindh Audit director general, Nazeer Ahmed Seehar, said that “many pages” were missing.
Jam Tamachi said that a letter should also be written to the CM and the CS to verify the PC-1. He observed that agriculture could not be improved in Sindh till corporate farming was not initiated, and declared as an industry. He said that such a decision will also bring required investment in agriculture, benefiting the people and improving the economy.
He said that the agriculture department was huge, and should either be decentralized or its management should be improved.
There were a total of 22 paras of the department, out of which only five were settled. The DG audit pointed out that because of PAC efforts, the agriculture department had recovered over Rs9 million, bringing the total recovery of all departments to over Rs1 billion so far.