PAC recovered Rs312b, referred 171 graft paras to NAB

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), headed by Syed Khursheed Shah, recovered Rs312 billion in the last five years and referred 171 audit paras of misappropriations and corruption to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and 50 audit paras to the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) for the investigation.

NAB has prepared 51 corruption references on the basis of audit paras sent by the Public Accounts Committee. PAC inherited huge backlog of eight-year Audit report and to clear the backlog, PAC, in its constituted three subcommittees and monitoring and implementation committee.

It was first time in the history of PAC that it was given representation of six senators that further strengthen the committee and turned into the Parliamentary Committee of the both the Houses of parliament.

PAC has referred 171 audit pars to NAB that included 21 audit paras of the Cabinet Division, 4 of establishment Division, 14 of the Ministry of Industries and Production, 4 of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, 4 of the Aviation Division, one of the Ministry of Privatisation, 8 of the Ministry of Energy, one audit para of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, 6 of the Ministry of Communication, 3 of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, 6 of the Commerce Ministry, 4 of the Ministry of Housing and Works, 32 of the Ministry of Interior, one of the Law and Justice, 17 of the Capital Administration and Development, 20 of the Ministry of Water and Power, one of the Defence Ministry, 3 of the Statistics Division, one of the Defence Production and five of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs.

PAC in the five year tenure examined 17,344 audit paras that include the main PAC has examined 4691 audit paras for the years of 1998 to 2017 while its subcommittees has examined 12,653 audit paras. PAC has recovered Rs48.72 billion in 2013-14, Rs39 billion in 2014-15, Rs75.83 billion in 2015-16, Rs70.93 billion in 2016-17 and Rs78.048 billion in 2017-18.