PESHAWAR, July 12: An audit report has detected serious violations of financial rules and irregular and unauthorised payments of worth millions of rupees in accounts of the City District Government Peshawar (CDGP) during the financial year 2003-04.

The Auditor-General of Pakistan’s recently prepared report revealed details of eight significant cases of irregular payments totalling Rs282.175 million, two cases of unauthorised payments (Rs2.017 million), three cases of loss (Rs2.111 million), five cases of non-recovery (Rs13.673 million), three cases of revenue receipt audit (Rs10.147 million), two cases of overpayment (Rs14.820 million), one case each of differences in cashbook and bank statements (Rs2.417 million), excess expenditures (Rs5.959 million) and wasteful expenditures (Rs25.504 million).

The audit report was submitted to the NWFP governor in accordance with Article 171 of the Constitution read with Section-115 of the

NWFP Local Government Ordinance 2001 which would be forwarded to the district nazim for presentation before the zilla council.

The report also uncovered flaws and weaknesses in the body’s internal control mechanism.

It noted that an internal audit was not in place to streamline the system of different organisations of the city government. Similarly, duties and responsibilities of key officers in the chain of command with respect to internal control had not been laid down.

A monitoring system to watch and control expenditures of the DDO’s finance department and principal accounting officers with respect to monthly and quarterly expenditure statements and evaluation for appropriate action was also non-functional.

Quantifiable targets for various activities of the CDGP were not fixed and actions on audit observations were not taken, the report said.

The district government was recommended to strengthen its management, put in place budgeting and accounting controls and install a system to ensure adherence to the regulatory framework.