PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor’s Secretariat may have taken a step after decades to hold political agents of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) accountable for their expenditure yet the long-awaited move is ineffective so far as the proposed monitoring system exists on paper only.

For long, the duty on millions of rupees worth of goods entering Fata daily hasn’t been open to audit.

This often leads to the charges of corruption, misuse of power and embezzlement of funds on part of the political administration in the tribal region.

Also read: In Fata: Structural subjugation

Euphemistically called the Agency Political Welfare Fund (APWF), the funds give immense discretionary powers to the political agents, who are the sole arbiters of how and where they should be spent.

Mechanism to monitor expenditure exists on paper only

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor’s Secretariat had issued notification on April 14, 2014 asking the Civil Secretariat Fata to put in place a monitoring system that may open transactions and transfer of the APWF funds to scrutiny.

The new mechanism after long deliberation was introduced to ensure transparency in the use of funds.

However, for a move that took more than six decades to make the political administration accountable, there are still lacunas in the monitoring system that leaves it open to exploitation.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which will oversee the implementation of the monitoring system has reservations that the rules still leave room for embezzlement, especially when Rule No 5 says, “However, in case of political expenditure, payment to informers and security related expenditure, the identity of the recipients shall not be mentioned/disclosed.”

“Rule No 5 regarding the expenditure of payments to informers and security related expenditure be reviewed as there is a possibility of embezzlement in the exercise,” suggests a NAB letter to the NAB additional director.

The letter says ‘a percentage of funds’ should be determined for such payments rather than leaving it open to discretion of authorities.

The NAB officials had to intervene after reports came about the alleged misuse of the APWF money collected through rahdaris in various tribal agencies, especially in Khyber Agency.

The issue was taken up with the Governor’s Secretariat and the federal Ministry of State and Frontier Region to prepare mechanism for collection and use of the APWF money in order to stop leakages and embezzlement.

When contacted, Fata law and order secretary Shakil Qadir said the matter was discussed during the monthly conference of political agents in Peshawar on Thursday.

He said the governor’s order was in the implementation stage and process had been started during current financial year.

The secretary admitted there were minor hindrances in the execution of the order. He, however, hastened to add that the secretariat was implementing it.

Ironically, the governor’s order has not been fully implemented and old procedure is still in place.

Recipients of rahdaris are directly depositing money in the official account of respective political agent or directly pay cash to political moharrar.

In background interviews, businessmen in Khyber, Mohmand and Bajaur agencies told Dawn that they had been depositing cash in the official account of the relevant political agents and not through crossed cheques. Traders in Parachinar, the Kurram Agency headquarters, said they paid cash to the relevant political moharrar for permits or rahdaris.

According to the notification, PAs and DCs shall print machine readable or tamper proof permits/rahdaris in a number (with S. No.) details of which shall be communicated to civil secretariat on monthly basis along with monthly reconciled statements of receipts and expenditure.

However, political authorities and relevant DCs are still issuing permits and rahdaris on ordinary papers, which, officials in NAB said, could be tampered with easily.

Rule 3 of the notification says the political agent/deputy commissioner (Frontier Regions) shall print machine readable or tamperproof permits/rahdaris in a number details of which shall be communicated to Civil Secretariat Fata on monthly basis along with monthly reconciled statements of receipts and expenditure.

The receipts books according to the notification having triplicate foils duly signed and stamped by political agents or his nominees be provided to the in charge of all check posts in the tribal agency.

“Mode of receipts shall be bank deposits and expenditure through crossed cheques duly supported by vouchers, if any. However in case of political expenditure payment to informers and security related expenditure, the identity of the recipients shall not be mentioned or disclosed,” said the notification.

According to the directives, monthly receipt and expenditure statements shall be furnished to the additional chief secretary of Fata on a format prepared by the Civil Secretariat which will be placed before the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor through the provincial chief secretary.

It said the sector wise expenditure register shall be maintained having detail of expenditure duly signed by the PA/DC and that the monthly receipt/expenditure statement should include comparative statement of three months.

Published in Dawn, September 06th, 2014