ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday expressed its annoyance at the briefing of the Ministry of Planning and Development on the ongoing development projects and termed it misleading which negates the facts and figures. PAC held its meeting with the chair of its Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah here in which the Ministry of Planning and Development gave the briefing to the committee on the ongoing development projects. Expressing its dismay over the Planning Commission’s briefing, PAC observed that the joke was being made with the committee while presenting facts and statistics as the road project of new Islamabad Airport which has beenmentioned in the documents at the cost of over Rs02 billion, but the officials of theMinistry of Planning and Development were telling the cost at Rs1.81 billion. “Why the wrong figures were mentioned in the documents,” the committee questioned and observed that it showed the ministry’s attitude towards Parliament’s accountability forum. PAC also questioned how they got the passage of the wrong figures from Parliament. “Even the information sought from the Ministry of Planning and Development sought was not brought into the committee meeting,” the committee observed. It was revealed in the PAC meeting that the Green Line Transport System, which was initiated for Karachi and approved in the year 2014, was being progressed on slow pace and only 60 percent was completed yet. PAC Chairman Syed Khursheed did not agree to the claim of the Ministry of Planning and Development about the completion of 60 percent of the project, saying only 35 percent of it is completed so far and due to delay in execution, the cost of the project was being increased manifold. PAC has summoned the top officials of the Finance Ministry, Communication Ministry and Ministry of Planning and Development on October 4. While briefing the committee, the officials of the Ministry of Planning and Development told the committee that total 1,022 development projects were conceived and there were 582 ongoing development projects for which Rs536 billion has been released. The officials of the Ministry of Planning told the committee that the total costs of the projects was Rs1,318 billion and there were 1,018 development projects of the ministries for which Rs866 billion was allocated. The PAC chairman questioned the criteria of timeframe of completion of development projects as in Pakistan it takes five to six years that increases the cost of the project in comparison to in the world. The officials told the committee that the timeframe of three years to five years was fixed for the completion of the project. To a query of PAC, the officials told the committee that the total cost of ongoing development projects was Rs4, 500 billion. The PAC chairman then observed that the ongoing development projects were not completed, and new projects were started which add to the total cost of ongoing development projects and new development project then its cost comes up about Rs6,000 billion. The officials told the committee that over Rs6.84 billion has been allocated for the Green Bus project. PAC expressed its dismay on the Ministry of Planning and Development and remarked that only 35 percent has been spent on the project in the last four years, and it should also be asked from the Sindh government why they were not completing the projects. Ministry of Planning and Development secretary said that the the Planning Commission only released the funds for the projects, and it was not our responsibility for the expenditure on the projects but was of the ministries.
