PAC gives IGP a month to sort out old fiscal records for audit

Karachi

The Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday gave a month’s time to the Sindh Police to conduct an inquiry into the absence of records of expenditures in four districts of the province, including Hyderabad, for the fiscal year 2009-2010.

This direction came after the Sindh IGP AD Khowaja failed to satisfy the PAC members reviewing fiscal matters pertaining to the expenditure incurred by the police force in four districts, additional forced deployed for the security of Governor House and Chief Minister House and other issues about the procurement of weapons from China and the United States.

The PAC members met under the chairmanship of Pakistan People’s Party MPA Saleem Raza Jalbani and planned to review 10 audit paras worth more than Rs1781.72 pertaining to accounts of the home department for the financial year 2009-10. However, only one para was reviewed while the remainng nine were deferred till the next meeting because the officials concerned did not present the relevant records before the committee.

Only one para worth Rs5.28 million could be settled on Friday.

The PAC members expressed their serious displeasure over the unavailability of documents, documentary evidences and papers by the police and home department officials concerned. The committee warned that strict disciplinary action will be recommended against the officials responsible for failing to present the required record in the next PAC meeting.

The PAC members remarked that they had convened around three months ago to consider the same audit paras. Then too, it was said, the officials concerned had failed to show up with the required documents and reports. They said three months had passed since that meeting and the officials had repeated the mistake.

Sindh IGP AD Khowaja assured the PAC that all the required documents will be presented in its next meeting.

One of the matters reviewed by the PAC was the establishment of 17 different offices of the Sindh Police worth a total of Rs272 million, without going through the due tendering process and supposedly in violation of rules of the Sindh Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (SPRA).

The Sindh IGP AD Khowaja said the police force had used its own purchase manual for making these procurements, to which the PAC directed him to present the said manual with the relevant records.

Members of the committee also asked the police officials whether tax had been paid of the purchases made by the police department, and were subsequently informed that a statutory regulatory order (SRO) had been issued under which the procurement carried out had been tax free. The committee asked the officials to present the SRO too.

The PAC was also irked by the absence of officials of the finance department.

Talking to the media later, PAC chairman Saleem Raza Jalbani remarked that the new Inspector General of Police AD Khowaja was an honest person and this was why he had been one month’s time to streamline the questionable fiscal affairs of his department.

Khowaja commented that corrupt officials who used to be part of the police force were now being taken to task and their deeds were now being scrutinised in the light of Supreme Court’s directions.

Talking about the killing of six policemen in Orangi while guarding polio workers on Wednesday, he said it was an extremely sorrowful incident. He said there were more than 20 million people in the city with numerous shanty settlements providing shelter to criminals and terrorists.

He said they could not be eliminated overnight, but a effort was required to break down their networks and eliminate any future attacks of this kind.