THIS is apropos the news report ‘Rs180bn corruption unearthed in AGP office: PM’ (Jan 13), which highlighted the fact that the federal cabinet had no confidence in the office of the Auditor-General of Pakistan (AGP).

The prime minister revealed that corruption amounting to over Rs180 billion had been unearthed in the institution. He was annoyed with the performance of AGPs, and said that audit paras of those departments were removed which bribed the audit officers, while paras were carried forward for departments that failed to appease the officials. The prime minister was of the view that the AGP office made audit paras only for news headlines and not to improve the working of the government departments.

I fully endorse the views of the prime minister. In fact, the AGP office is responsible for large-scale corrupt practices, irregularities and pilferage in government organisations.

It patronises corrupt mafias, and targets only those who refuse to grease its palm. The departments are unnecessarily dragged in paras to destroy the career of its officers.

Audit is annually carried out in all ministries and government departments, but no major cases of corruption, misuse of authority and embezzlement are pointed out. This is obviously owing to corruption.

Only minor things are converted into audit paras which are subsequently settled after taking illegal gratification, otherwise they linger on for years.

While on audit duty, lodging, boarding, transportation, gifts and other expenses are generally borne by the departments to ‘properly’ take care of the audit teams to avoid their annoyance.

Ironically, all major scams are unearthed by the National Accountability Bureau, the Federal Investigation Agency and other anti-graft watchdogs. The question is: why did not the AGP office point out these cases while carrying out annual audits that are supposed to be in-depth affairs?

All audit officers should be proceeded against under the relevant disciplinary rules and penalised ruthlessly for causing irreparable loss to the national exchequer.

I suggest that wherever NAB references are filed, it should be inquired if the AGP office had ever brought out these irregularities while carrying out the annual audit.

If that is not the case, then the auditors concerned should also be held responsible and be nominated in the references as co-accused on the charge of concealing the crime.

The assets of all AGP officers from BPS-16 and above may also be verified to catch the culprits and to remove white-collar criminals from the AGP office.

Tariq Majeed
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2021