ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday expressed concerns over the involvement of private testing bodies – particularly the National Testing Service (NTS) – in government sector recruitments, and demanded a regulator to handle such bodies.

The PAC met at Parliament House to discuss the NTS’ audit paras.

During the meeting, PAC Chairman Syed Khursheed Shah, while refusing to name names, said that he had been contacted by the operator of a private testing organisation “who asked me to give the names of my candidates to get favourable results”.

Expresses concern over their involvement in govt sector recruitment

He added that private companies had no credibility.

Committee members asked why such firms were not being regulated by the government. Senator Azam Swati said the former head of the NTS held a fake degree and was a fraud, but no action had been taken against him.

Science and Technology Secretary Yasmin Masood told the committee that the NTS project was a non-profit entity started by the Comsats Institute of Information Technology in 2002.

She said her ministry had tried to hold Departmental Audit Committee (DAC) meetings twice to discuss audit paras, but due to objections raised by the Higher Education Commission (HEC), was unable to do so. She added that the audit was conducted at the HEC’s direction, which was why the HEC wanted to hold the DAC.

However, HEC Executive Director Dr Arshad Ali said during the meeting that the commission had no objections if the ministry wanted to hold the DAC, after which the PAC directed the Ministry of Science and Technology to do so.

Earlier in the meeting, the science secretary had briefed the committee on how the ministry would restructure the NTS.

The NTS began as a Comsats project in 2002 to provide unified standards for a knowledge base and assess skill sets at various levels. In 2003, the company M/S National Testing Service was incorporated under section 42 of the Companies Ordinance with the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan.

The first NTS audit was conducted by the Auditor General of Pakistan in 2016 in collaboration with the HEC.

It revealed that the service was functioning without rules, policies, a corporate strategy and organised objections, causing the misuse of funds and the misappropriation of billions of rupees. Auditors had also raised questions regarding the legality of the NTS.

During Tuesday’s meeting, the HEC executive director also told the PAC that its Education Testing Council – which was set up after the Lahore High Court found the NTS test for educational institutions to be illegal to offer free testing services – had not been able to test students from Sindh and Punjab due to objections raised by the two provinces.

Universities’ audit paras discussed

The PAC also discussed several audit paras pertaining to Comsats and the Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology (FUUAST).

The committee settled two Comsats audit paras related to irregular and unauthorised expenditure worth Rs66 million on the vice chancellor’s forum organised by Comsats, and the unauthorised appointment of 65 advisers and consultants by the university.

The PAC supported the university in organising the vice chancellor’s forum of Islamic countries, and was also informed by the rector that the number of consultants and advisers had been reduced in light of audit objections. At this, the committee settled the paras.

The committee discussed irregular expenditure in the construction of the Urdu university’s academic block, which began in 2012 and cost Rs211m, even though it was supposed to be completed at a cost of Rs116m.

The PAC decided to engage Nespak to determine the cost, and also discussed Rs115m in irregular expenditure by the university’s management while awarding scholarships to faculty.

Audit officials told the PAC that 205 candidates appeared in a test for 22 scholarships for universities abroad, and a selection committee recommended eight candidates who appeared and qualified in the NTS test.

But auditors pointed out that the university ignored the candidates who qualified in the NTS and were recommended by the selection committee. Instead, just one recommended candidate and another 21 candidates were selected, none of whom had qualified or been recommended by the committee.

The case was referred to the National Accountability Bureau for investigation.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2018