ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not to evolve a policy to ‘restrict’ the size of the entourage of the prime minister and the president during their foreign visits despite directions from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) issued in 2011.
Instead of coming up with a policy or even its draft, the ministry wrote letters to its chief accounts officer (CAO) and the ministry of finance a few days before the sub-committee was likely to take up the matter, asking them to prepare the guidelines. However, they refused to extend any help in this regard.
On August 11, 2011, the PAC expressed displeasure over the “extremely poor financial management” of the foreign ministry. However, it expressed the hope that the “bad financial management would not recur in future.”
During the meeting, an additional secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs informed the committee that the excess in expenditure of the ministry occurred due to more visits by the dignitaries.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs yet to formulate a policy on PAC directions issued in 2011
During the meeting, the secretary foreign affairs informed the committee that “summaries have moved for formulating a policy regarding the composition and size of delegations accompanying the president and prime minister on foreign tours. A request has also been made for certain parameters regarding entitlement and privileges of the official delegation.”
As the policy was yet to be formulated, the incumbent government paid millions of rupees on foreign tours of the prime minister. According to data presented in the National Assembly by the foreign affairs ministry in February this year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made 65 foreign visits during which he was accompanied by 631 officers, which cost the national exchequer Rs638.27 million.
A sub-committee headed by Syed Naveed Qamar was scheduled to take up the matter on May 30. The committee, however, deferred its deliberations due to the unavailability of the secretary foreign affairs.
On May 26, the CAO submitted a letter to the committee stating that the direction for formulating the policy on the prime minister and president’s foreign visits had been issued to the secretary foreign affairs.
“As regard to the policy related to the president and prime minister during their visits abroad, the matter does not come under the purview of CAO office.”
Addressing the ministry of foreign affairs, the letter added: “It is, therefore, requested that the policy may be framed and submitted to the PAC secretariat.”
When contacted, Nafees Zakriya, the spokesman for the foreign ministry, refused to comment on the matter.
Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2016
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