Millions doled out to PSB, ministry employees as honoraria

ISLAMABAD: A sufficient amount has been doled out to the employees of the Ministry for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) as honoraria from the Pakistan Sports Board’s (PSB) kitty of over Rs15 million.

A well-placed source told ‘The News’ that the ministry’s employees have silently whisked away with honoraria from the PSB’s non-development budget.

This correspondent is in possession of a copy of the cheque released by the PSB on June 30 as honoraria for the ministry employees working at different stations across the country. It is worth mentioning here that the ministry has nothing to with the PSB budget.

At a crucial time when the government has decided not to increase government employees’ salaries due to severe financial constraints, the ministry’s decision on honoraria raises serious questions.

“During the last three years, we were kept waiting for normal grants that finally came last week with almost sixty percent cut. If an annual grant of a federation is Rs2 million then it deserved Rs6 million after three years. Unfortunately it got only Rs2 million,” a federation official said.

“Some of the federations were denied even this meagre amount. But these ‘baboos’ hardly miss any opportunity,” he added.

It has been learnt that over Rs1.2 million honoraria was given to the ministry employees. This has happened despite the fact that a few years back the auditors had raised objections when the ministry officials got honoraria.

“We have been continuously complaining that the PSB’s non-development budget was very high and there was a need to cut its expenditures. However, the percentage of this budget is increasing regularly and it is a matter of concern,” said the official.

When PSB Deputy Director General (Technical) Azam Dar was approached, he said the PSB employees have every right to get the honoraria.

“Senate, National Assembly and Finance Division’s employees also got honoraria. It is our right to get basic salary increased at the end of financial year and we did nothing wrong,” he said.

All the efforts to contact Minister for IPC Dr Fehmida Mirza to know her point of view remained fruitless. ‘The News’ sent an SMS to the minister a few days back to know her stance. The ministry’s point of view will be published once it is received.