KARACHI, Jan 18: None of the reports of the Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee containing verified audited accounts of public money has been presented in the assembly during the last 17 years due to ‘dictatorial’ rule.

The disclosure was made recently by the present chairman of the PAC, Jam Tamachi. The PAC is responsible for examining the appropriation accounts to determine financial irregularities and discrepancies committed while using public money by government departments. It prepares a report based on its observation and submits it to the assembly.

The PAC, which performs as an accountability body, also ensures that every re-appropriation was made in accordance with the rules.

According to Rule 157 of the Sindh Assembly Rules of Procedure, the PAC should be constituted during the assembly’s first session held after the general election.

However, the present committee was constituted in the fourth session as the majority party – the Pakistan People’s Party – wanted to hold consultations with other groups in the house in order to constitute the PAC and other standing committees with a consensus.

It may be noted that since the dissolution of One Unit in 1970, the present assembly was the eighth assembly. The assembly formed after the general election in 1990 and dissolved in 1993 failed to elect the members of the PAC.

Sindh Assembly Secretary Hadi Bux Buriro told Dawn that in the absence of the provincial assembly during the ‘dictatorial’ regimes, the then governments had constituted ad hoc public accounts committees, which also prepared their reports. However, there is no provision in the Constitution which permits submission of the report of an ad hoc PAC in the assembly, he added.

The last ad hoc PAC, headed by former Sindh chief secretary A.K. Lodhi, was appointed in October 2000 and was given the task to consider audited accounts for the period ranging from 1983-84 to 1999-2000.

In its report for the year 1998-99, the ad hoc PAC pointed out that the quality of accounts and audit reports of various government departments was at the lowest level. It found that the violation of rules became the order of the day and in the majority of the cases the financial rules were not followed by departments in general and by the drawing officers in particular.

Had the findings of the ad hoc PAC been implemented, the Jam Tamachi-led committee would have no need to grill the secretaries of the government departments for attending the proceedings unprepared.

Meanwhile, the former chairman of the PAC, Jam Madad Ali, said that the committee which he led had considered over 70 per cent accounts for the year 2003-04 and its report was being prepared for the assembly.

He said that the bureaucracy did not take the PAC seriously and it delayed its work.

Jam Madad, who is now leader of the joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly, said that he was ready to help the newly constituted PAC for expediting its pace of work.