ISLAMABAD: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has said that the accounts of the civil works of the Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project have been audited and the audit report is being presented to the Punjab governor.

According to a statement issued by the AGP office, the audit of the civil works of the OLMT project, valued at $531.681 million as per PC-I, has been completed. At present the report is under the approval process and will soon be presented to the governor for its submission to the Punjab Assembly.

The OLMT project of the Punjab government, having an approved PC-I cost of Rs162.628 billion ($1.626bn), has been given preference and importance in the audit plans of the department of the Auditor General of Pakistan, it said.

AGP office says report will be presented to governor of Punjab

It added that since the OLMT project had gone through time overrun of more than a year, the physical progress on electrical andmechanical portion of the project had not been as per schedule.

According to information available with the department of Auditor General of Pakistan, still about 20-30 per cent work on electrical and mechanical portion of the project is incomplete and financial progress of the electrical and mechanical portion is about 45-55pc.

However, the Auditor General of Pakistan has included audit of the electrical and mechanical portion, valued at $922.5m as per PC-I, of the OLMT project in the current audit plan as well.

The statement says the department of the Auditor General of Pakistan attaches highest importance to the audit of mega projects because of the risk-based audit approach it follows and considers its highest duty to provide objective, unbiased and nonpartisan reports based on facts to parliament for parliamentary oversight by representatives of people.

The department has already completed important audit assignments, such as audit of public sector companies, Punjab; audit of Metro bus projects in Multan, Rawalpindi and Lahore; audit of the Orange Line Metro Train project (civil works); audit of the Pakistan Cricket Board and audit of the Pakistan Super League.

In addition, the following audit assignments are in progress and will be completed soon in due course of time: audit of circular debt of power sector, audit of Central Power Purchase Authority, audit of the Orange Line project (electrical component), special audit on losses of the Pakistan International Airlines, forensic audit of four projects of Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution, audit of billion tree tsunami project, audit of oil pricing mechanism of the Pakistan State Oil, audit of e-ticketing of Pakistan Railways, IT audit of the Punjab Revenue Authority, special audit of the Benazir Income Support Programme, performance audit of Haj Directorate, performance audit of PM global Sustainable Development Goals, the AGP office says.

It adds that the special audit report on accounts of 425-525MW combined power cycle power project, Nandipur, has also been completed and the report will soon be sent for its presentation to parliament.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2018