ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Saturday directed that gold weighing 7 maunds, one kilo and 40 tolas, silver weighing 43 maunds , 30 kilos and 63 tolas and an amount of Rs369.8399 lying with the treasury offices and in the PLA accounts at Islamabad and with the Punjab and Balochistan governments since 1947 should be deposited immediately with the Federal Treasury.

According to a press release, the committee issued this instruction in its meeting held under the chairmanship of Malik Allah Yar Khan in the Parliament House to discuss the accounts of the Minorities Affairs Division for year 2000-2001.

The committee was told that the evacuee movable property was supposed to be deposited with the Federal Treasury as decided by the federal cabinet, however, the Minorities Affairs Division failed to comply with the said directions.

The committee directed the secretary minorities to deposit the said amount of gold, silver and money with the Federal Treasury without further delay and submit a report in this regard.

Discussing the appropriation accounts of Minorities Affairs Division for the year 200-2001, the committee observed that the division should strengthen its internal financial controls and strictly monitor the utilization of its budgetary allocations and demand supplementary grants after thoroughly scrutinizing its budget.

The committee also observed that the financial advisors (FAs) posted in each ministry/division had failed to discharge their duties enumerated in the Secretariat Instruction of Government of Pakistan. The PAC, therefore, issued directions to the principal accounting officers of all the ministries to immediately post FAs in their respective ministries, who had experience to deal with finance and accounts.

The committee also discussed the left-over audit paras of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources. On an audit objection pertaining to the loss of Rs24.44 million sustained by the Sui Southern Gas Pipelines Company due to unnecessary import of two gas compressors, the committee directed the secretary petroleum to immediately order an inquiry and fix responsibility against the people for causing loss to the national exchequer.

The committee also directed the OGDC management to pursue the recovery of Rs58.44 million lying pending against several contractors and submit report to the committee within two months.

According to details provided by the audit department, Rs124 million were paid to the contractors as advances out of which adjustments of Rs65 million had been verified.

MNAs Mohammad Safdar Shakir, Syed Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Ghulam Rasool Sahi, Prof Asiya Azeem, Syed Qurban Ali Shah, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Ch Wasi Zafar, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Tanvir Hussain Syed, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad and Auditor General of Pakistan, secretary minorities affairs, secretary petroleum and officials of the departments concerned attended the meeting.