ISLAMABAD: The newly-appointed Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), Rana Asad Amin, on Tuesday made an ‘unimpressive’ debut in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as the officials of the audit and the ministry of communications remained at loggerheads during the scrutiny of the latter’s accounts.

During the meeting, the PAC, headed by opposition leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, took up the audit reports of the ministry of communications for the year 2010-11.

Since this was the first appearance of AGP Rana before the PAC, the staff from his office arrived about an hour before the start of the PAC meeting.

An official from the AGP office was seen asking the staff deployed at the committee room No 2 to make such seating arrangements that the AGP would look prominent.

“This is the first day of the AGP at the PAC and you need to arrange some extra seats as all the audit officials would be here to accompany the boss,” the official instructed the staff.

Subsequently, some extra seats were adjusted around the discussion table.

The audit officials raised a number of objections on the ‘un-authorised’ award of contracts, release of funds to the contractors and outstanding towards the National Highway Authority (NHA) as well as receivable from the toll plazas.

During the meeting, the director general federal audit read out different paras regarding the objections.

However, Shahid Ashraf Tarrar, the federal secretary communications, claimed that the matter had already been discussed at the departmental accounts committee level and most of the things had been sorted out.

He claimed that the DG audit read out selected portions of the paras but skipped the section where the details of recovered amount had been mentioned.

“The audit officials are showing some unique angles to their new auditor general,” he said.

At another point, the AGP alleged that due to the connivance of the NHA officials, the government had lost a recovery case where the officers of the motorway police allegedly drew unauthorised house rent.

“They did not produce relevant materials before the high court and also deliberately delayed the filing of an appeal with the Supreme Court,” he alleged.

Responding to the allegations, the secretary communications said not only his ministry but also the finance ministry was a respondent in the case and the latter could have challenged the matter in the apex court within the prescribed period of time.

It may be mentioned that the AGP served in the finance ministry for over a decade as an additional secretary, special secretary and after attaining the age of superannuation was made an adviser in the same ministry.

Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, a PAC member, expressed concerns over the arguments and cross-talks between the audit and the communications ministry officials.

“It seems that the two departments are combating. I have never seen such strange proceedings of the PAC before,” he remarked.

“There is decorum of the PAC and the government officials must show some respect before the august forum,” he added.

During the meeting, the audit officials also pointed out that the NHA had awarded 10 contracts worth Rs493 million in 2008 without calling tenders.

The secretary communications replied that the projects were awarded to the National Logistics Cell (NLC) because all the land had been taken from the army and the offices namely Signals, GHQ, Military Hospital, Central Ordnance Depot and army residences were located within the vicinity of the projects, so it was impossible for private contractors to carry out the job in these areas.

He informed the committee that the award of the contracts to the NLC was approved by the then chief executive of the country.

When Khurshid Shah asked who was the chief executive at that time, the ministry officials informed him that the approval was given by General Pervez Musharraf before the 2008 elections.

Mr Shah remarked that it was next to impossible for the then chairman NHA to say no to Gen Musharraf.

He then settled the para with the direction to the communications ministry not to repeat such an action in future.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2015

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