ISLAMABAD: SAF Games: irregularities of Rs201m detected
By Arshad Sharif
ISLAMABAD, March 26: The management of South Asian Federation (SAF) Games has been found involved in financial irregularities to the tune of Rs201 million, which among other charges, include giving undue benefit to private organizations through “verbal agreements,” reveals an audit report . The justifications given by the SAF management to regularise the irregulars were rejected by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) in its report for the test audit conducted during 2004. The ninth SAF Games management included Chairman Lt-Gen Arif Hassan, Chief of staff and chief coordinating officer Brig Amjad Javaid, Information and media director Lt-Col Syed Mujtaba Tirmizi, Administration Director Brig Ahmad Riza Siddiqi, Communication Director Brig Abid Hussain Bhatti, Technical Director Lt-Col (retired) Muhammad Yahya, Procurement Director Lt-Col Mansoor Abbas, Information Technology Director Lt-Col Umer Farooq, Finance and Marketing Director Lt-Col Azhar Dean, Ceremonies Director Brig Arif Rasul Qureshi, Protocol Director Brig Khalid Rasheed Lodhi, Chief Engineer Lt-Col Usman Saeed. The SAF management accepted that it failed to recover Rs9.45 million from ARY in violation of an amended contract, which was amended as some clauses of a previous contract were not implemented.
The report identifies an undue benefit of Rs7 million given to a cell phone company by the games management.
The reply given by the SAF management was an eye-opener as it entered into further agreements with the company without mentioning if any tenders were called while entering into a “verbal agreement.”
“Recently verbal agreement has been reached under which the multinational cell phone company will pay Rs14.5 million for uplift of the shooting ranges - Gun Club and construction of new facilities against which it will be given branding rights for the future shooting events for a period to be negotiated and finalised,” said the SAF management in its reply.
However, the AGP noted, the sponsor of Gun Club did not deposit an amount of Rs7 million in violation of the provisions of Article 3(3) of the agreement while he fully utilised his rights under the agreement. “It is not clear from the reply how the previous liability will be cleared.”
The AGP has also charged the SAF management of unauthorized retention and utilization of sale proceeds of ‘Hero Cards’ worth Rs16.84 million. The funds were to be used for the welfare of the sports persons. However, the SAF management accepted that it did not utilise the Rs16.84 million funds for the welfare of sports persons. In its reply, the SAF management said chairman of the committee, Lt-Gen Arif Hasan, diverted the funds for holding the games as substantial losses were incurred due to three postponement of the SAF Games.
The report noted that the SAF management did not recover an amount of Rs16.98 million from the sponsors of the ‘Hero Cards’ in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement.
It further noted that the management failed to return a loan of Rs150 million to the ‘Saver Fund’. Accepting the charge, the SAF management said the ministry of sports and culture never intimated to the SAF management the terms and conditions of the loan. The management said if the ministry had intimated that the Rs150 million given to start preparations of the SAF games were a loan, the SAF committee would have advised them “it did not consider the release of the same funds as a loan but as a grant in line with the Chief Executive’s directives.”
The AGP also noted loss of Rs220,150 due to difference of 22,015 cards in the inventory, non-recovery of Rs1.02 million from the Pakistan Post Office and non-recovery of Rs758,000 from directorate of Haj.
