‘CAA did not recover Rs145b assets of old Rawalpindi airport’

ISLAMABAD: The Aviation Division told the Public Accounts Committee that the report of arbitration committee, formed by the prime minister for assets of Rs145 billion of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Airport, will be submitted soon before the committee.

The meeting of the Public Accounts Committee was chaired by Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain on Wednesday in which the audit paras related to Aviation Division for the year 2019-20 were examined. The secretary Aviation Division told the PAC that the control of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto International Airport is with the Civil Aviation Authority while its Rs145 billion assets lie with Pakistan Air Force, but the CAA did not secure the assets of old Rawalpindi airport after shifting to the new airport. The secretary told the PAC that the prime minister had formed a committee on September 20 last year to resolve the issue and held several meetings. The Chairman PAC, Rana Tanveer Hussain, asked the Aviation Division to update the committee on its decision.

While examining the appropriation accounts of the Aviation Division, the PAC expressed its annoyance over lapse of 70 percent of the Aviation Division's development budget. The audit officials told the committee that the Aviation Division had failed to utilize Rs2 billion worth of development budget and only utilized Rs800 million while the remaining Rs1.2 billion lapsed. Rana Tanveer Hussain summoned the secretary Prime Minister's Office, secretary President and secretary Cabinet Division on the issue of grants to the Aviation Division. He also sought a briefing from the Aviation Division over the lapse of development budget in the next meeting.

Hussain was annoyed with several ministries and divisions for not holding Departmental Accounting Committee meetings and remarked that only 150 to 200 audit pars were presented before the PAC in India, while in Pakistan about 24,000 audit paras were pending since last year. He said the committee was unable to take them up due to inefficiency and incapability of ministries, division and departments.

While examining the audit paras on breaking of the aero bridge at New Islamabad Airport, the CAA officials told the committee that negotiations for its reconstruction were going on with a Spanish company but they could not visit Pakistan due to COVID-19. While examining another audit para, the audit officials said the national and international airlines, including PIA, were defaulter of billions of rupees of the Civil Aviation Authority. The PIA had defaulted on payment of Rs28 billion to the CAA, which it had not paid since 2009 and consequently the airline was stopped from flight operations in 2018. The PAC directed the Aviation Division to brief it on the mechanism for recovery of defaulted amount within a month.