June 15, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, June 14: PPP Information Secretary Sherry Rehman alleged on Wednesday that Nadra’s misappropriations were so high that the Auditor-General’s report expressed its shock at the “scandalous mismanagement”.

In a statement, she said last fiscal year the Nadra had charged quietly in the development budget Rs250 million but overspent Rs400 million only under the head of automated finger printing identification section under the charged expenditure of the Interior Ministry.

She said even if it was an autonomous department, the corruption and mismanagement found in it did not justify its removal from purview.

Last year, the Nadra had charged Rs1.8 billion without explanation, which was tracked under the immigration and passports expenses (machine-readable passports), he said.

The PPP legislator said irregular expenditures noticed by the Auditor-General in 2003-4, amounted to Rs230 million in award of contract; missing CNIC forms worth Rs95 million; excess payment of Rs92 million on Urdu forms; damages paid to Fauji Foundation worth Rs66 million due to failures in Nadra’s management.

According to her, the Nadra was also responsible for non-recovery of receipt of Rs50 million; purchase of equipment costing Rs48 million; missing equipment worth Rs4.9 million; loss of Rs35 million on purchase of additional scanners; non-recovery of damages on non-data scanning worth Rs36 million; deduction of damages owing to mismanagement worth Rs35 million to a company; and excess payments of Rs27 million and Rs15.8 million to various institutions.

Ms Rehman further pointed out “irregular expenditure” out of sale proceeds of blank CNIC forms, Lahore office; irregular expenditure of Rs15.4 million on hiring of consultancy services of IT projects; irregular expenditure of Rs15.02 million on consultant for production of NICs; non-production of record of expenditure worth Rs12 million pertaining to procurement and repair of computers; and irregular payment on legal consultants worth Rs11.2 million.

Quoting special audit report on funds released by ECP to Nadra for electoral rolls for local elections, the PPP leader said it pointed out Rs444 million worth of irregular expenditure on account of electoral rolls prepared without inviting tenders. Also she said, there was an irregular expenditure of Rs88.9 million on account of lump sum management fees paid.

The management, she said, allowed overcharging from contractors worth Rs44.2 million on account of pay entry of data operators.

She said unsubstantiated payments to contractors worth Rs106 million on account of printing of impressions and irregular expenditure worth Rs13 million on civil works had also been pointed out in the report.