LAHORE, July 6: The Punjab government servants whose out-of-turn house building, motorcycle and car advances were sanctioned during the last fiscal year should not approach the accountant general's office for payment because it has no funds for the purpose.

The provincial government has allocated only Rs1,000 as token money for the house building advance for its employees, indicating that the scheme has been wrapped up for the time being.

This was stated by Punjab Accountant-General Wazir Ahmad Qureshi during a meeting here on Tuesday. He said the Rs90 million sanctioned for 1,815 government employees had lapsed after the passage of the financial year 2003-04.

He said the government had allocated Rs150 million for the loans which exhausted during the first week of December 2003. But the finance department continued to sanction applications without providing additional budget for the purpose.

As a result of which none of the employees could get any loan after December. He said this was a violation of the Audit Code's Article 44, also creating problems for 1,815 employees whose loans were sanctioned, sending them from pillar to post for getting the payments. Mr Qureshi said under the rules, all sanctions had gone waste and, therefore, no payment could be made against them.