Islamabad:
The subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Tuesday of financial differences within the Federal Public Service Commission (FPSC), as it appeared that federal revenues amounting to Rs18.965 million is still not compared.
The subcommittee, chaired by the deputy Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, ordered that a new meeting of the Ministerial Accounts Committee (CDA) is kept to solve the problem.
According to audit officials, the irregularities were reported for the first time in the 2005-06 audit report, which underlined inconsistencies in the collection of examination fees in 2004-05.
The audit authorities said that even if the FPSC had received the examination fees from the candidates, the receipts had not been compared to the national treasury.
“The FPSC has filed the examination fees but did not obtain verification of the Treasury Department,” reported the audit team, adding that RS18.9 million receipts could not be compared with the Federal Treasury Bureau, a blatant violation of government rules.
A briefing revealed that although discussions took place between the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and the FPSC, and despite prolonged consultations involving the finance division, the division of establishments and the NBP, the problem is still not resolved.
The FPSC representatives explained that the rapprochement of receipts from thousands of banking agencies was practically impossible and that the recordings of the 20 -year fee deposits were no longer available. They added that “the problems encountered at the time have since been resolved”.
The subcommittee has instructed the departments concerned to convene another CAD meeting to settle the issue and submit a progress report.
During the session, the audit paragraphs linked to the Ministry of Justice were also examined, in particular objections concerning illegal appointments and the release of 100 million rupees to lawyers in 2007-08.
The legal secretary said that the amount had been paid to the Association of the Supreme Court Bar (SCBA) for its charitable fund, declaring that all legal and administrative requirements had been met. “There was nothing illegal in payment; it was duly dealt with by the appropriate routes,” he said.
However, a representative of the Ministry of Finance informed the Commission that the case had only been submitted to him the day before, promising to examine it in detail.
President Tariq Fazal Chaudhry expressed his concern in the face of the low representation of the finance division in the PAC procedures, announcing that a letter would be written to the finance secretary to guarantee that competent officials would attend future meetings.
The Committee ordered the Ministry of Justice to submit a written response on the audit paragraph, after which the question was settled.
