ISLAMABAD: The Pakis­tan Nuclear Regulatory Authority could not frame its rules for about two decades since its establishment and recently the authority purchased a house for the PNRA chairman in violation of procurement rules, the auditor general of Pakistan (AGP) disclosed.

The PNRA was established under an ordinance in 2001. It is entrusted with the responsibility of controlling, regulating and supervising all matters related to nuclear safety and radiation protection in the country. It is empowered to develop rules and regulations, issue guides for nuclear safety and radiation protection and develop and execute policies and programmes for the protection of life, health and property against the risk arising from ionising radiation.

The PNRA works under the umbrella of the National Command Authority (NCA). The AGP report for the financial year 2019-20 said that “Section 9(2) of the National Command Autho­rity Act, 2010, states that the authority shall regulate all the matters relating to terms and conditions of the service of the employees in the service of the NCA, including their appointment and rem­oval, promotion, transfer, integrity assessment, reliability, security clearance and other related matters”.

Says the nuclear regulatory body has failed to frame accounting procedure specifying policies

It further said that Section 15 of the Act stated that “the Authority may make rules for carrying out the purposes of this Act”.

The audit report stated that the PNRA was requested to provide copies of rules/regulations and accounting procedure made under the National Command Authority Act.

It said that after perusal of the record the auditors observed that the PNRA did not frame the rules related to GP/CP funds, pension, welfare and investment and the management has not framed the accounting procedure specifying the detailed policies and procedures to be used in accounting for the PNRA financial transactions.

The PNRA management, in response to the audit objection, stated that “as per NCA Act, they are empowered to make rules and regulations for the organisation governed under their umbrella. The PNRA is also governing under the NCA Act. Therefore, making of rules is the jurisdiction of NCA. They have framed many rules and the rest of the rules are under process”.

A departmental accounts committee had on Jan 14 directed the PNRA to frame rules and accounting procedures and got these approved from the competent authority.

However, the auditors noted that “no progress was shown to audit till finalisation of the report”.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2020