ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: Changes at the top in the bureaucracy are always watched with interest and jealousy in this citadel of the Establishment. No wonder the appointments made by the Prime Minister or on his advice by the president recently against three key financial posts at the federal level are the most talked about topic among the senior government officials these days.
The appointment of chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Auditor General of Pakistan and the federal finance secretary have been made in the recent days and the senior government officials privately find controversy around the oil pricing mechanism as one of the most important link among the three. At the centre of discussion is their fear that an investigation report on controversial oil pricing prepared by the NAB could be removed from the official.
These officials believe that such postings and transfers should be seen in the context of a case pending before the supreme court of Pakistan relating to alleged irregularities in the oil pricing. At one stage before March 9 presidential reference, the chief justice of Pakistan had asked the federal government to provide complete record of the case including the NAB report.
There may not be many wrongdoings but it goes against the principle of propriety to become judge of ones own deeds and is sufficient to mar the image of accountability and transparency, commented a senior government official who is going to retire next month after reaching the age of superannuation.
A few days ago, the prime minister appointed his trusted class-mate Tanvir Ali Agha as Auditor-General of Pakistan on completion of his one-year post-retirement contract as secretary finance. He was the principal accounting officer of the finance ministry that maintained accounts of the petroleum development surcharge worth of billions of rupees per annum, authorised payment of differential claims to the oil marketing companies and released foreign exchange for oil imports during the last few years.
He would now be looking after the preparation of audit objections on oil pricing besides other expenditures and then finalisation of audit reports for the Public Accounts Committee and the federal government account he had approved as principal accounting officer.
In the heat of public cry on oil prices, the government had ordered a special audit of the issue in March 2005 — a job never fulfilled even after two years, these officials suggest.
The prime minister has now appointed Ahmad Waqar as Secretary Finance in place of Mr Agha. Before his new assignment, Mr Waqar served as secretary petroleum for more than three years when the oil prices touched all time high. According to NAB officials, Mr Waqar was not part of the team that put in place the oil pricing mechanism, he neither took corrective steps when prices increased nor did he transfer the responsibility of oil pricing to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) as originally planned. However, it remains a secret what conclusions the NAB reached in finalising the ‘top secret report’.
The officials said the appointment and subsequent working of former Secretary-general Finance Navid Ahsan as NAB chairman should be watched with keen interest to see if the report prepared by the NAB and submitted to the president and the prime minister would remain on official record or disappear altogether. However, some of the senior bureaucrats who have known Mr Ahsan for years say that he would be happy to oblige any future government that may like to further investigate the issue.
They said the issue had become more crucial for the fact that the executive authority would never like the NAB report prepared under its own government to move into the hands of any hostile or independent head of the accountability bureau.
They also refer to media reports that the government has ordered a ‘special audit’ into the five years of oil pricing process following reports of alleged wrongdoings that put extra burden on domestic consumers when compared with international prices.
The officials said it was not clear if the special audit was ever conducted or shelved. This was the time, the NAB had taken into custody the whole five-year record of the petroleum ministry pertaining to the oil pricing for examination. In his response to the NAB queries, Mr Waqar had wrote that the policy of oil price deregulation was approved by the then chief executive Pervez Musharraf in 2001. A subsequent price calculation mechanism was also approved by a meeting of the then federal cabinet.
The policy and the calculation formula were implemented by the OCAC. The petroleum ministry had also taken the position that it used to take the finance ministry and then the prime minister into confidence on each quarterly price revision calculated by the OCAC.
The NAB officials as well as senior civil bureaucrats are still not clear in what circumstances the departmental enquiry into the dumping of oil products ordered by the petroleum minister was shelved and how the ECC approved revision in pricing formula on a October 18 summary that contained self-contradictory figures.
The main summary contended that light crude oil prices had touched highest level of $60.5 per barrel in August 2005 and high speed diesel peaked at $68 per barrel. On the contrary, an annexure of the same summary revealed that light crude oil in the Arabian Gulf had never crossed $42.6 per barrel and HSD prices peaked at $53.92 per barrel in August 2005.
