ISLAMABAD, May 9 The Directorate General of Audit has objected to release of Rs128 million during the last three years by the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) to a number of sports federations without following the proper procedures.

The PSB audit report for 2005-8 pointed out that the regulator and promoter of sports in the country did not show the adjustment and audited statements of these releases to the audit department.

The report available with Dawn revealed that the grants were released to national sports federations and organisations without evaluating their achievements and activities and approval of the PSB executive committee.

The government has constantly been injecting the required finances into the sports federations and provided the necessary infrastructure but the system failed to groom good athletes with title winning results.

The report also showed that the PSB rule that “the grants are released to national federations to meet their day-to-day expenses, whereas special grants are meant for participation and holding international sports event” was violated while releasing the funds for these organisations.

The grants are allocated/approved by the executive committee of the PSB keeping in view the popularity of games, achievements of international level and the activities of the federations.”

Pakistan is without any Olympic medal or even regional-level title in 40 different Olympic sports and the standard of the games is consistently declining.

When contacted, an official spokesman for the PSB, Azam Dar, said, “We are preparing a strategy on the advice of the audit department to conduct the comprehensive audit of several national sports federations.”

Asked whether the grants were issued after evaluating the performance of the sports federations, he said the evaluation committee only met once in 2000 under the chairmanship of the President Pakistan Olympic Association.

The finance sub-committee of the executive committee of the PSB headed by an official of Ministry of Finance will now evaluate the performance of the sports federation before allocating the funds for the next financial year, he added.