MUZAFFARABAD, June 27: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Council, an institution being run from the AJK taxpayers’ money, has long been avoiding codal formalities and applications of pre-audit checks in deals worth millions of rupees, forming the basis of two references to the AJK Ehtesab Bureau, Dawn has learnt.

In just one of many such cases, a fictitious expenditure of Rs119.5 million had been shown purportedly for automation work of the Income Tax Department in Mirpur as the then Accounts Officer of the AJK Council had not applied pre-audit checks before release of this huge amount, documentary evidence available with Dawn revealed.

However, Malik Qaiser Majeed, Joint Secretary since 2007 of the AJK Council, was of the view that the “present” Ehtesab Bureau was not a competent authority to exercise its jurisdiction over the affairs of his institution.

“We are a parallel government and do not fall under the purview of the present Ehtesab Bureau. We are going to set up our own body for accountability,” he told Dawn.

The AJK Council, it may be mentioned here, was established under the AJK’s interim Constitution Act 1974 apparently “to serve as a bridge between the governments in Muzaffarabad and Islamabad.”

The AJK income tax department, AG office and the Directorate General of Audit fall under the administrative control of the Council and it has a key role in the appointments in AJK’s superior judiciary.

The AG office is responsible for maintaining pre and post-audit checks on vouched accounts of both the AJK government and the Council.

Sources told Dawn that the violation of codal formalities and applications of pre-audit checks was going on in the Council for several years.

On June 5, AJK’s Accountant General (AG) Tahir Mahmud, asked the Council’s Accounts Officer (AO), Haq Nawaz Abbasi, to submit monthly accounts with complete vouchers and other supporting documents.

However, Mr Abbasi, posted in the Council secretariat some five years ago, did not comply with the direction, despite several verbal and one written reminders, because according to an audit report (2011-12) of the AJK Council, “he was not only avoiding observance of codal formalities but also cheating the AG office and in doing so causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer,” the sources said.

AG Mahmud finally recalled Mr Abbasi from the Council secretariat and replaced him by a senior most deputy accountant general besides filing two references against him in the AJK Ehtesab Bureau, the sources added.

However, in a surprise move Mr Mahmud was unceremoniously transferred by the Auditor General of Pakistan’s office on June 20 through a ‘flawed order,’ which however remains in limbo owing to serious reservations and resentment in the higher echelons of power here as well as intervention of the federal secretary Kashmir and GB affairs division.

Interestingly, the first order made by Mr Noora Khan, who was posted in place of Mr Mahmud, was reversal of Mr Abbasi’s transfer. However, like his own posting that order remained unimplemented as well.

According to sources, officials in the AJK were already concerned about the state of affairs in the Council and some three months ago the AJK Ehtesab Bureau had also sought details of some deals from the Council secretariat.

Acting on complaints, former secretary Kashmir and GB affairs division, Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad, had constituted a three-member committee, comprising AJK Council’s chief planning Munawwar Shah, AG Mahmud and AJK secretary works Akram Sohail to look into some of these issues.

When Mr Majeed was asked as to how such brazen violations of codal formalities were allowed to take place for years together, he replied that he was wrong person to be asked this question and it should have been put to Mr Abbasi, instead.