Pakistan Engineering Council refusing accounts auditing by AGP

ISLAMABAD: Despite repeated requests and intimations by the office of Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) is still refusing to get its accounts audited directly from the AGP.

Earlier, the matter has also been discussed in the meeting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) where, on the request of PEC, the committee allowed PEC to conduct its audit from a private firm on the condition that the audit report must be endorsed by the AGP to which the PEC agreed. The PEC then conducted its accounts audit from a private firm and dispatched the report to Director General Federal Audit to get endorsed.

The DG Federal Audit however did not accept it, saying that it was against the rules as the PEC is a government statutory body whose parent ministry is Ministry of Science and Technology, hence it falls under the audit jurisdiction of the AGP.

As the AGP is a responsible institution and it is liable to conduct audit of all departments that falls under the government of Pakistan, the PEC must also observe rules and provide the AGP access to all its accounts for audit.