April 27, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 20, 1429

KHANEWAL, April 26: On the directions of provincial local government and community development department, the DCO has ordered sealing of the entire record of expenditures, financial transactions and purchases made by various district government departments and the contracts awarded, for carrying out a special audit.

Dawn has learnt here on Saturday that the DCO has ordered the staff concerned to take all kind of record belonging the Education, Work and Services, Community Development, Agriculture and Finance wings of Tehsil Municipal Administrations of Khanewal, Mianchannu, Jahanian and Kabirwala.

Besides, the record of all 100 union councils of the district has also been taken into `safe custody’.

A letter (No SO.D-111(LG)1-84/2008) addressed to all DCOs and TMOs across the province with a compliance deadline of three days has quoted the decision taken by Punjab cabinet meeting held on April 23 to conduct special audit of the working of all local governments from 2001 to 2008.

“To implement this decision, it is very important that the entire record of expenditures, financial transactions, purchases and contracts etc for each group of offices starting from 2001 to date, must be placed into safe custody.

An inventory must be prepared for the relevant record files. The DCOs/TMOs shall ensure that this record is put into safe custody to avoid any interpolation or misplacement,” the letter reads.

The letter says that the record must be put in separate room, which should be locked or sealed properly. However, the files pertaining to on-going transactions may be enlisted in a separate inventory and as soon as the transactions are closed, these files be put into safe custody, it adds.

Sources said that the audit would be a very strict exercise to evaluate the performance of the local governments and the expenditures made by these bodies.