Ministries asked to reconcile expenditure on monthly basis

ISLAMABAD: After discrepancies in expenditure appeared in different ministries/ divisions with the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR), the government has directed all the federal secretaries/ principal accounting officers (PAOs) to remove all kinds of discrepancies and reconcile expenditure on monthly basis in a timely manner.

It has been found that the ministries were not reconciling expenditure on monthly basis, creating difficulties to reconcile all heads.

The World Bank-funded Pifra project has been operational but it failed to plug loopholes in the accounting system of the country despite spending millions of dollars.

The Ministry of Finance has received Status Report from the AGPR, Islamabad, regarding the non-reconciliation of expenditure for the month of October 2022.

Top official sources told The News in background discussions that the ministries/ divisions were used to reconcile expenditures on a quarterly basis despite several reminders from the AGPR. One official said that if the ministry booked an expenditure of Rs100 but when it was reconciled, then discrepancy surfaced. So, he said, they had always advised the Ministry of Finance to direct the PAOs to comply with the accounting requirements.

There are many flaws in the accounting system of ministries/ divisions, and one way for cheating the system is utilising expenses through attached departments which, in many cases, do not pass through the scrutiny of the accounting office.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also placed the condition to implement a Treasury Single Account (TSA) but there is a lackluster approach by attached departments, autonomous bodies and certain other institutions towards it.

The Ministry of Finance has informed the IMF that they would adopt a gradual approach to bring all the accounts under a single account system.