AGP awards auditors for detecting irregularities in Grand Hyatt Hotel

ISLAMABAD: Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Assad Amin on Monday granted special honorarium equal to two months pay for the staff of Audit, Works (Federal), Islamabad on identifying irregularities in the construction of Grand Hyatt Hotel in Islamabad.

The irregularities identified by the auditors of the Auditor General of Pakistan office not only highlighted the professional competence of the department of Auditor General of Pakistan but also had significant audit impact, said the spokesperson.

The Auditor General of Pakistan Rana Assad Amin started a system of rewards and punishment in the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan under Strategic Reforms Plan (2015-19) and under this initiative AGP has dismissed 3 officers of B-17 and B-19 who were found guilty of corruption and misconduct in last six months to eliminate corruption and indiscipline from department because he has zero tolerance in this regard.

To bring further improvement in this system the AGP has started a “Whistle Blowing” policy and a dedicated system for registering the complaints have also been put in place on the directions of the AGP.

While commenting on Grand Hyatt Hotel case the spokesperson of the department of Auditor General of Pakistan said that the case was actually identified by the auditors of DAGP during the audit of CDA by Audit, Works (Federal) Islamabad and on the basis of audit paras raised by the auditors of DAGP, PAC in its meeting held on May 28-29,.2014 discussed the irregularities in Grand Hyatt Hotel lease/construction and issued directions to refer the case to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the matter and arrest those who are involved in this deal within 1 day and also to provide a copy of the case to the PAC within 3 working days and to initiate action against the CDA officials who inked the deal with BNP Group and a case should be registered against the then CDA officials involved in this deal and directed Principal Accounting Officer to furnish information regarding any change approved in master plan of Islamabad, the spokesperson added.

PAC also directed to conduct structure assessment and soil testing from Engineering Council as against the structure design for constructing 13-storey Tower, the owners were constructing a 33 stories building and to submit a comprehensive report to Public Accounts Committee within one month and directed Principal Accounting Officer to examine with the help of the FBR the Income Tax paid/payable by the purchasers of the flats worth billions of rupees, the spokesperson said.

The issue was also discussed in another PAC meeting held on 31.08.2016, wherein the committee took serious note of the facts and figures revealed during the briefing regarding the 1st bidding process of Grand Hyatt Hotel and substantial changes made in the subsequent bidding documents/advertisement and directed the Secretary, Capital Administration and Development Division to provide a comprehensive report along with original relevant documents in the light of PAC meeting to the committee within a week, said the spokesperson.

Commenting on the matter the spokesperson further said that several relaxations were extended to allottee in contradiction of rules and regulations which facilitated the developer and caused loss to CDA. Various violations were pointed out by Audit as under: