LAHORE, June 1: The Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has detected misappropriations to the tune of Rs1.88 billion in Wapda’s yearly audit for 2000-2001.

The report was sent to Wapda chairman Zulfiqar Ali Khan on Saturday. A copy of the same has been provided to the Ad-hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that is due to meet on Aug 20 to discuss the report.

An official of the internal auditor’s office told Dawn that the report included 393 audit paras, which, in practical terms, meant 393 different cases of misappropriation during one year.

This he described as unprecedented in Wapda’s history. Only 43 paras had been finalized in 1998-99 and 93 in 1999-2000. This figure jumped to 393 in this report.

The report, a copy of which was made available to this reporter, has put the details of misappropriation under eight different heads: over-payments, misappropriation, recoverable, negligence, violation of rules, violation of propriety, non- production of record and others.

The audit team found that Rs74.992 million had been misappropriated during the year in all Discos, Gencos and NTDC. They also paid Rs2.4846 million in overpayment to different people. Another Rs823.5833 million due against different people concerned with Wapda have not been recovered in spite of timely warnings by the audit teams in successive meetings. Similarly, Rs202.127 million have been wasted due to sheer negligence of the staff concerned.

A sum of Rs368.644 million was spent in violation of rules and Rs1.52 million in violation of propriety. The audit team could not find record of Rs355.689 million spending.

Another Rs46.48 million spendings were made under different heads that could not be categorised and Rs6.145 million spending were tagged as miscellaneous by the audit team.

The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) topped the list with highest unaccounted-for sum, which was Rs755.82 million. It was followed by the NTDC with Rs290.8 million.The Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) came third with Rs252.5194 million and Gujranwala Electric Supply Company (Gepco) fourth with Rs203.136 million. The Fesco has Rs22.357 million, the Lesco Rs125.142 million and Mepco Rs24.106 million. The Northern generation company had Rs18.7086 million and the Central generation Rs0.198 million. The hydel sector is guilty of Rs3.353 million and Rs27.277 million in water sector. There are Rs6.145 million miscellaneous head.

According to the officials of Wapda’s internal audit, this is the final report that has been prepared after due process.

The first report was discussed with the officers concerned and some of the paras were dropped and others settled. Then, the report was discussed with higher authorities and finally at company level.

These 393 paras could neither be dropped nor settled during the whole process. He also claimed that this was a result of test, not total audit, which could have been even worse.