09 March 2005	Wednesday	27 Muharram 1426

ISLAMABAD, March 8: The Auditor General of Pakistan has identified Rs82.884 million financial irregularities in the Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad, said a report placed before the National Assembly.

The audit of the CIIT accounts had been undertaken for the period from 1997-98 to 2002-2003 on the special request of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman, Dr Attaur Rehman.

According to the report, an expenditure of Rs18.04 million was incurred on irregular appointments. Barring a few cases, a large number of appointments had been made in violation of the rules and regulations. The vacancies were filled without advertisement in the national press.

The institute management incurred an expenditure of Rs11.13 million on the purchase of machinery, equipment and furniture during 1997-98 to 2002-2003 without calling open tenders through press in total disregard of the rules and regulations.

The audit also detected misuse of Rs16.77 million funds on the purchase of different store items such as furniture, fixtures, computer systems, electrical equipment, paint, hardware and stationary. All these purchases were made without calling open tenders.

In another case, an expenditure of Rs3.39 million was irregularly incurred on the purchase of various items through unauthorised relaxation of the provisions of GFR and conditions imposed by the science and education minister.

The report observed that the CIIT management did not observe the head-wise budget allocation made in the PC-Is of seven projects approved by the DDWP. As a result, Rs11.67 million was spent in excess of the allocation for various projects and re- appropriation was made without approval of the competent authority which was unlawful, the report observed.

A project namely "Construction of Academic Block of CIIT, Islamabad" was approved by the DDWP at the total cost of Rs39 million. However, against the said approved cost, the management spent Rs46.61 million on the project, which resulted in excess expenditure of Rs7.61. This expenditure also included payment of fee of Rs2.36 million to a consultant firm without any provision in the original or revised approved cost.

Likewise, the institute management, Johar Campus, Islamabad, appointed employees for different projects without open advertisements in the press. In each project, it over-stepped the sanctioned strength. In this regard, Rs7.01 million were spent without meeting the prescribed criteria and payments were made in total disregard of the posts sanctioned in the PC-Is of the projects.

The report also observed that the CIIT management irregularly charged an expenditure of Rs3.77 million to the head of account "miscellaneous/unforeseen" instead of charging the expenditure to proper heads of accounts.

In yet another finding of the report, the management put the public exchequer to a loss of Rs1.43 million by not making purchases from the Sales Tax Registered firms and not requiring the suppliers to deposit sales tax with the government treasury.

The management also irregularly cleared its Rs1.01 million liabilities from the allocation for various projects besides charging professional fee, the report noted.

In another finding, the CIIT management spent Rs439,430 under headings such as entertainment and purchase of air conditioners, from the allocation of the Data Entry Operator project.

Likewise, the management unlawfully purchased cell phones and paid/reimbursed monthly bills amounting to Rs300,558 without approval of the Cabinet Division and without provision for mobile phones in the PC-I.