ISLAMABAD: Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) recovered Rs490.47 billion from various government departments between July 2018 and December 2020, but the bulk of recoveries were made during the first half of current fiscal year, according to an official statement.

In the statement issued on Wednesday, the AGP office said that reforms were introduced in the past three years to boost the performance of the department, especially to improve the quality of audit work.

The amount of money recovered in the last fiscal year remained low mainly because of restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it said.

The processes introduced in the AGP office included a computer-based system aimed at containing corruption by minimising the chances of direct contact between the auditors and the departments concerned.

In the first half of current financial year, a record amount of Rs353bn recovered, says statement

“(Because) of AMS (audit management system), the auditors would not be able to contact the officials of the auditee office to settle down the audit paras. With the help of these reform initiatives of AGP, performance of the department as well as transparency would be ensured,” the statement said.

The AGP office has also established a Specialised Audit Unit for hiring of professional and competent professionals. Forensic and issue-based audit is the top priority of the department, said the statement.

During the first half of the current financial year, the AGP office recovered a record amount of more than Rs353bn. In contrast, the recoveries made from the federal government departments stood at Rs84.7bn and Rs39.8bn in the fiscal years of 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively.

According to the statement, the recoveries made from the provincial and district departments were recorded at Rs6.6bn and Rs6.19bn in fiscal years of 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. The recoveries made from the departments stood at Rs5.72bn in the first six months of the current fiscal.

The highest recoveries were made by the Director General of Audit (DGA) for Lahore, who recovered Rs160.36bn in the year 2018-19, Rs8.85bn in 2019-20 and Rs307.14bn between July and December last.

The DGA for Karachi made recoveries of Rs42bn in 2018-19, Rs10.28bn in 2019-20 and Rs30.31bn in the first six months of 2020-21.

Similarly, the DGA for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recovered Rs2.08 million and Rs244.03m in 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively, and Rs298.47m between July and December.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2021