ISLAMABAD, June 20: The ad hoc Public Accounts Committee was informed on Thursday that the four high courts and various bar councils in the country had failed to get their Rs242.850 million accounts audited.

The committee was informed at a meeting presided over by H. U. Beg on Thursday that the law ministry had released a grant-in- aid of Rs64.350 million to various Bar councils and Rs178.5 million to the chief justices of four provincial high courts for strengthening the lower judiciary. However, despite repeated reminders, details of the utilization of this money were not presented for audit.

The committee also expressed dismay over gross financial irregularities involving embezzlement of Rs20.988 million through tempered cheques and fake sanction letters in Quetta’s National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA).

It was informed that the official involved in the embezzlement, former accounts officer Arif Mahmood, had been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs10.338 million by an accountability court. The principal accounting officer informed the PAC that the official had filed an appeal against his conviction in the high court, therefore the fine amount had not yet been recovered from him.

Nevertheless, internal controls have been strengthened and necessary steps taken to streamline the working of NIPA, he assured the committee.

The committee expressed its displeasure over the unavailability of NIPA Quetta’s records for the 1987-1992 period and asked the PAO to hold an inquiry and fix responsibility for the financial indiscipline.

The director general audit on the occasion briefed the committee about a case in which the law ministry had released Rs11.14 million to the supreme and high courts. The amount was utilized for the establishment of banking courts in violation of the general financial rules, the committee was told. The principal accounting officer said the amount was spent on purchasing computers for superior courts.