PAC summons officials over irregularities in foreign-funded teachers’ training project

Karachi  

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Wednesday summoned before it the chairman of Chief Minister's Inspection, Enquiries & Implementation Team (CMIIT) and other officials of the provincial education department to discuss the persisting financial irregularities pertaining to foreign-funded Sindh Elementary Teachers’ Training Project.

The PAC meeting held in committee room no 1 of the Sindh Assembly building with PPP MPA Saleem Raza Jalbani in chair, reviewed Auditor General’s report of the accounts of Sindh government’s education department for financial year 2008-09.  

The PAC meeting discussed in all 18 audit paras contained in AG’s report having total value of Rs 404.51 million but only settled five audit paras having accumulative value of Rs4.89 million.

The committee deferred consideration of the remaining 13 audit paras worth Rs399.62 million.

Additional Chief Secretary of the Sindh government’s education department, Dr Fazllullah Pechuho, informed the PAC members that paras deferred pertained to financial irregularities allegedly committed in affairs of education department and its related subsidiary organizations and projects implemented in and by the past regimes.

He said the CMIIT and the National Accountability Bureau had long been inquiring into these dubious financial affairs so education officials would not be in a better position to explain before the committee, the present status of fiscal matters related to unsettled audit paras. He said that it would be better to ask NAB and CMIIT officials about the unresolved financial irregularities committed during the past regimes in the education department.

Regarding the Sindh Elementary Teachers’ Training Project, financial irregularity to tune of Rs268 million had been committed during the past regime.

The issue had been settled partially since the CMIIT has been looking into the unresolved extent of the matter having value of Rs108 million.

The PAC issued directives that CMIIT chairman and other education officials concerned should be summoned to the next meeting of the committee to provide updates about their latest inputs regarding the unresolved portion of the financial irregularities committed in the teachers’ training project.

Meanwhile, Dr Pechuho while speaking at the PAC meeting and later talking to newsmen, announced that smart phones had been provided to a small number of teachers with especially-designed Android applications for checking and verifying attendance at government-run schools in different districts of the province.  

He said a pilot project for verifying the attendance of teachers was also run to check the job status of 252 teachers in government schools and out of them, some 50 were found absent from duties.

He said such a system of android phone applications for verifying attendance of school teachers could be given to MPAs of the Sindh Assembly for using it in their respective districts, provided that the Sindh Assembly passed a resolution to this effect.

Pechuho said that a project worth Rs60 million was also being implemented for improving the conditions of government schools.

He claimed that during the previous regime of Pervez Musharraf, the system of district governments had been used to establish government schools in various districts while bypassing the provincial authorities concerned. So this was why at present many such schools had gained the status of ghost schools.

Pechuho said inquiries conducted by government officials had found out that some 940 teachers had been illegally appointed in districts of Larkana and Kambar-Shahdadkot. 

He said similar inquires regarding promotions of 600 teachers had also ascertained that some 300 government school teachers out of these dubious promotion cases had been unduly promoted.

He said efforts were underway to undo the illegal and fake appointments of school teachers carried out in the past regime, while the protesting teachers whose services were not regularized or were declared null and void had been give the opportunity to appear in a pre-recruitment aptitude test to prove their eligibility and qualification for vacant teaching posts. 

PPI adds: A spokesman for Sindh IGP Ghulam Hyder Jamali has categorically clarified the confusing impression created due to a news item appearing in some sections of press with regards to a PAC meeting in which it was implied that the Sindh police had wrongly paid millions of rupees to Pakistan Railways.

According to the facts, the Pakistan Railways is an official clearing agent of Sindh Police as nominated by the federal government since long, and payment is made to Pakistan Railways in such capacity strictly under the rules.