LAHORE, Nov 10: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Punjab Assembly on Thursday settled a row between the home and police departments by giving the ruling that the former was answerable for audit paras of the latter before promulgation of the Police Order, 2002.

The body gave the ruling after hearing law and home secretaries and additional secretary for finance.

During the last meeting of the PAC, the home department had held the stance that the police department itself was answerable for any distortions in its audit reports.

But the body observed that official notification was required for transferring liabilities of one department to the other and in this case it had not been done.

The PAC, on an audit para related to overpayment of Rs15 million as TA/DA in Sialkot district, directed the Gujranwala range DIG to make recoveries from the beneficiaries or get the paras settled from accounts department.

However, the issue was kept pending for next meeting as the DIG headquarters requested that he too should be heard on the subject.