Fianancial fraud, scams are generally attributed to ‘secular’ or non-religious politicians. This report debunks myths of Mulliath and honesty, given the opportunity human beings will have similar reactions irrespective of their holiness or lack of it. Major portion of the fraud is related to Punjab because of its sheer size relative to the other smaller provinces. Bottom line, MMA/PML/PPP/GHQ have had their share of the pie, none of these parties or their supporters can claim moral superiority…Iss Hammam mein sub he nangain hain…
Rs 5bn fraud detected in 34 district govts
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By Rauf Klasra*
ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan has detected massive frauds, embezzlements, bogus payments, and financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 5 billion in 34 district governments of Punjab and eight of NWFP during the course of audit for the year 2002-2003.
The audit reports would soon be taken up by the Public Accounts Committee of each district with the powers to punish the guilty DCOs and other government officers after recovering the embezzled amounts or sending their cases to FIA, NAB etc.
Dera Ghazi Khan, Attock, Mianwali, Sheikhupura, Rawalpindi and Jhang are a few districts where corruption level has been found very high, according to these reports published for the first time.
All District Coordination Officers (DCOs) in their capacities as Principal Accounting Officers of districts have been held directly responsible for corruption at district level as all amounts put under observation and under the corruption categories were approved and released by the DCOs and other concerned officials of the government departments.
According to available break-up, in Punjab a total of 811 audit paras have been established against district governments involving Rs 4.791 billion. While in NWFP Rs 216 million have been found spent irregularly.
The audit paras deal with important issues like serious irregularities, violation of propriety, loss to the government, non-production of official record, and negligence and violation of rules.
An official of the AGP told The News on condition of anonymity that** these reports were completed some eight months earlier and sent to local government departments of each province.** The purpose of sending these reports was to forward them to the district council of each district for their onward despatch to the elected PAC of each district.
Under the law, the DCOs are supposed to appear before these committees and explain each decision that caused massive financial losses to the taxpayers. The official disclosed that instead of sending these reports to each district government to place it before the public accounts committees, these were dumped in the local government departments.
The official said bureaucrats were not ready to appear before the elected members of the PAC at the district level considering it disrespect to their ‘status’. That was why, he said, DCOs and others were using ruling party MPs to propagate against the existing local bodies system only to get it scrapped and start ruling the district without being answerable to anyone.
A DCO on the condition of anonymity, however, told The News that the fault lies in the local government ordinance that gives sweeping powers to district nazims particularly to write their ACRs.
This clause, he claimed, forced DCOs to toe the line of action given by district nazims. The AGP official said there was a clear clause in the local bodies system that audit will be conducted each year. But, he regretted, that even the auditors of the AGP were not performing their duties well as many were either not ready to go there to conduct audit or were not doing justice with their duty by indulging in corrupt practices.
Instead of bringing major cases of irregularities, they were only bringing minor issues that might not stand scrutiny at the time of PAC meetings. The official said the role of AGP also needed to be strengthened so that the institution of local government could be strengthened.
According to official documents available with The News, following is list of district and volume of corruption as reported by the AGP.
PUNJAB: Jhelum, Rs 106 million; Rahim Yar Khan, Rs 3.5 million; Layyah, Rs 4 million; Dera Ghazi Khan, Rs 81.1 million; Pakpattan, Rs 13.6 million; Faisalabad, Rs 194 million; Toba Tek Singh, Rs 166 million; Bahawalpur, Rs 17 million; Sargodha, Rs 229 million; Lodhran, Rs 52 million; Kasur Rs 23 million; Khushab Rs 26 million; Mianwali, Rs 109 million; Bahawalnagar, Rs 18 million; Jhang, Rs 540 million; Muzaffargarh, Rs 43 million; Attock, Rs 186 million; Sheikhupura Rs Rs 1,932 million; Bhakkar, Rs 118 million; Sahiwal, Rs 13 million; Rawalpindi Rs 98 million; Vehari, Rs 23 million; Okara, Rs 6 million; Rajanpur, Rs 89 million; Multan, Rs 87 million; Lahore, Rs 109 million; Chakwal, Rs 202 million; Khanewal, Rs 76 million; Norwal, Rs 21 million; Hafizabad, Rs 3 million, Mandi Bahauddin, Rs 8 million; Gujranwala, Rs 21 million, Gujrat, Rs 20 million; Sialkot Rs 123 million.
NWFP: Peshawar, Rs 77 million; Sawabi Rs 21 million; Karak, Rs 14 million; Dera Ismail Khan, Rs 52 million; Batgram, Rs 1.1 million; Haripur Rs 38.61 million; Kohistan Rs 6.93 million; Hangu Rs 5.48 million.