MUZAFFARABAD, March 11: The public accounts committee (PAC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir may entertain a request of the AJK Ehtesab Bureau (EB) to allow its officials to attend the committee’s meetings as observers, Dawn learnt here on Monday.

The PAC secretariat, relevant sources said, had received the written request from the Ehtesab Bureau about a week ago and was soon likely to make a positive decision on it.

Proceedings of the PAC are held in the light of the reports submitted by the AG office, the local audit fund and the commercial audit on financial irregularities in different departments.

The sources said the recoverable amount mainly from the departments of public works, forest, food, electricity and local government and rural development was to the tune of Rs700 million.

The committee would earlier recommend action against culpable officials under the Efficiency and Discipline Rules but as the influential people would manage to escape punishment, the E&D rules have now been replaced by the Removal from Service (Special Powers) Ordinance.

Similarly, the recoveries of the misappropriated amounts were earlier made through the Land Revenue Act which, being an outdated law, would not produce desired results. The PAC is now referring the recovery cases to the Ehtesab Bureau, which carries out the task under the strict Ehtesab Bureau Act.

“As we are already taking advantage of the Ehtesab Bureau Act by recommending cases to them, the chairman does not see any harm in allowing the bureau officials to attend the PAC meetings as observer,” the sources said.

They added that the Ehtesab Bureau had got enough powers to carry out an effective recovery drive and the committee was appreciative of its performance in that regard.