Officials asked to focus on performance audit to improve governance

PESHAWAR: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the KP Assembly on Thursday asked the Audit and Accounts authorities to focus on performance audit, with an aim to ensure good governance and eradicate corruption from the public sector organisations.

The committee, however, expressed satisfaction on recovery ratios of the Food Department, and especially lauded its steps for increasing supply of wheat in the nook and corner of the province as well as normalising its rate during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.

The observation was made at a meeting of the PAC on disposing audit paras on fiscal anomalies in Food Department. The meeting was chaired by MPA Muhammad Idrees at KP Assembly Secretariat, Peshawar. MPA Inayatullah and officials of the Food, Law, Finance, Accounts & Audit departments attended the meeting.

The committee expressed satisfaction on process of recoveries. However, it referred cases of certain fiscal irregularities to the concerned sub-committees for verification.

The committee further asked the Audit and Accounts officials to avoid creating audit paras based on merely raising objections on petty matters that did not tantamount to yielding financial benefits to the public exchequer, rather resulting in waste of precious time and energy of the government departments.

The committee, however, asked the departments for expediting the process of recoveries in respect of damages caused to public funds during the under Para periods including loss due to delay of recoveries from defaulters.

The committee decided to ensure two big recoveries from the food contractor MS Evergreen Trading Company (Rs1.747m) and (Rs1.359m) over overpayment due to decrease in transportation charges in Mardan and Malakand districts.