LAHORE: The Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) has got its special audit conducted by a ‘renowned third party professional auditor’ in defiance of instructions of the chief minister and the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) to let government auditors conduct the exercise.

A member of the CMIT had in June last year conducted a thorough inquiry into the affairs of the PEF and found that “the foundation is suffering from an overall laxity of administrative discipline, which is manifested by infighting within the organisation and subsequent grouping”.

Endorsing the recommendations of the member, the CMIT chairman suggested in a summary submitted to the chief minister: “A special audit of the organisation may also be ordered. This special audit must be done by an appropriately constituted team of government auditors. This special audit must cover not only the financial aspect of the organisation, but also look deeply into performance evaluation data and recruitment of personnel.”

The PEF approached the Directorate General of Commercial Audit (DGCA) on Sept 14, 2014 for conducting a special audit “in compliance with the recommendation mentioned in CMIT report” through a letter.

However, the PEF managing director sought withdrawal of the letter.

“The CMIT report was discussed in the 56th meeting of the PEF Board of Directors held on Sept 13, 2014. The board has decided that special audit shall be conducted by a professional third party audit firm and the earlier letter written to DGCA shall be withdrawn,” said the letter sent to the directorate general five days after the earlier letter.

The PEF management advertised in newspapers on Jan 20 this year for a firm to conduct the special audit after a delay of almost four months since the BoD meeting. The advertisement only invited firms interested in conducting a financial audit and not following other recommendations of the CMIT chairman pertaining to recruitment of personnel and complete performance evaluation.

Ironically, the firm that had prepared all operational manuals - financial, programmes and human resources -- of the foundation besides conducting its internal audit for the last couple of years had been hired. The firm charged Rs7.7 million for the ‘special audit’. The BoD approved the recommendations in its 59th meeting on May 20.

The firm had given a clean chit to the PEF. However, neither the Punjab Education Department, the administrative department of the foundation, nor the CMIT initiated any move to take the PEF to task.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2015

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