ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee was informed on Thursday that a bill might be tabled in parliament to ensure efficient use of foreign grants.
Secretary of the Economic Affairs Division Mohammad Saleem Sethi told the PAC’s sub-committee on monitoring and implementation during scrutiny of grants worth $568 million which remained undisbursed during 2000-2008 that the ‘Foreign Assistance Policy Framework’ was ready to be introduced in parliament soon.
The audit authorities had pointed out that at least “85 per cent of grants had been lost from January 2006 to June 30, 2008…(because) government agencies failed to comply with counterpart requirements articulated in their commitments”.
Mian Abdul Manan, a member of the sub-committee, said it was a crime that 85pc of grants had lapsed because of inefficiency of bureaucracy and asked Establishment Secretary Nadeem Hassan Asif and Mr Sethi to identify the officials responsible for the lapse so that action could be initiated against them.
Mr Sethi told the meeting that to avoid such problems in future, the proposed law would make it mandatory that the executing agency must be competent to utilise the grant properly.
Audit officials also informed the sub-committee that $153.7m of Pakistan was outstanding against least developed countries, including Sudan, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which they had utilised as export credit.
Export credit is a facility of trade financing available to domestic companies for their international activities. Mr Sethi said the countries, which availed the facility, were now seeking ‘waiving off’ the amount outstanding against them.
Rana Afzal Hussain, convener of the committee, pointed out that the economy of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had improved and the situation in both countries was better than Pakistan, so they should be pursued for recovery of money.
The committee examined the audit para about disbursement of Rs26.9m to 78 officers on special duty. As per the audit objection, the officers were “drawing salaries and other benefits without performing duties for a period ranging from 15 months to 100 months” at the time of audit in 2004-2005.
The establishment secretary informed the sub-committee that the establishment division would create two sections to utilise services of the officers sidelined by their departments. The meeting took up audit paras related to the government officers who availed foreign education at the expense of the national exchequer, but did not submit their educational certificates to relevant departments or resigned after completing the education without completing mandatory period. The sub-committee directed the establishment secretary to recover the amount in instalments.
Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2015
