LAHORE: A forensic audit of the losses incurred by the Pakistan Railways has stated that the department has been operating under serious limitations and constraints.

An audit report submitted by AF Ferguson & Co before a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday showed that the railways had incurred losses to the tune of Rs30 billion during the financial year 2012-13, Rs32bn in 2013-14, Rs27bn in 2014-15, Rs26bn in 2015-16 — overall Rs40bn between 2013 and 2017. The revenue reported by the railways for the same period was Rs18bn, Rs22bn, Rs31bn, Rs36bn, and Rs40bn respectively.

70pc of department’s revenue goes towards paying pension to retired employees

Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered the audit during a hearing in April while former minister for railways Khawaja Saad Rafique was also present in the court.

The report said during the five years, the increase in revenue had been offset by a huge spike in expenditure and the losses had worsened from Rs30bn in 2012-13 to Rs40bn in 2016-17. “It is our view that an annual loss in excess of Rs40bn is not sustainable,” the audit firm said in its report.

The report further revealed that 70 per cent of the revenue had been used for payment of pension to retired employees.

It said the railways had been working under constraints including quality and age of tracks, quality and age of locomotives/coaches and quality and efficacy of the telecommunication system.

It said that the railways, in its present form, will face challenges of delivering at the service level and matching increasing costs.

“It is essential that the organisation be run with proper planning and in an efficient manner in order to ensure that financial support is minimised and operations are sustainable,” the report said, and added that the present situation of the railways was a result of poor planning over the last 70 years, however, no effective planning to uplift the department had been seen during the last five years.

Chief Justice Nisar expressed serious concern over revelations made in the audit report and directed the railways secretary, present in the court, to file a rejoinder to the report.

The chief justice also summoned the former minister for railways at the next hearing to be fixed by the office at a later date.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2018