ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: An attempt is being made to hush-up cases of misappropriation of funds worth millions of rupees at the office of Controller General of Accounts (CGA), reliable sources told Dawn.

Internal audit reports of the CGA office for 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 had unearthed cases of embezzlement, misappropriation and misuse of authority, causing the national exchequer a loss of over Rs20 million.

Based on findings by the auditors, when a senior officer of the CGA office recommended registration of FIRs against those who were found involved in misusing funds and embezzlement, she was transferred forthwith.

The officer had gone to the Islamabad High Court and Federal Services Tribunal, taking the position that she was illegally transferred because she wanted to bring the culprits to the book. The case is still pending with the court of law.

According to the sources, acting on internal reports, the outgoing CGA, Director General Mohsin Khan, dropped and settled most of the paras relating to the cases in the audit report and directed a junior officer of BPS 18 to investigate some of the cases. He took all these actions just a week before his retirement. He retired on November 4, 2008. As expected no significant action was taken thereafter.

However, according to sources, on the direction of a senior government official, once again the audit of CGA office has been initiated. But instead of asking Director General, Federal Audit (DGFA) for an external audit, its audit would be done by the internal audit section of Auditor General of Pakistan. The DGFA is authorized to conduct external audit of all federal government organizations.

Only the external audit is presented before the powerful National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee for scrutiny, whereas, internal audit reports are meant for internal consumption only.

The officer, who was given the task to conduct the fresh audit, had been transferred from Peshawar to Islamabad only three months back. However, according to the sources, she has again been handed over transfer orders to return to Peshawar.

Though under an ordinance CGA has been separated from Auditor General Office, however, the latter still regulates transfers and postings of its officers since they all belong to one CSS group, Pakistan Audit and Accounts Services (Accounts group). The CGA office’s primary responsibility is the compilation and maintaining of accounts from federal government down to district level governments.