ISLAMABAD, Nov 21: The government has been asked to investigate embezzlement and misappropriation of equipment and funds worth Rs18 million uncovered by auditors in one of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) offices.
An internal audit and inspection report has detected incidents of embezzlement, misappropriations, misuse of power and authority at the office of Director General, Management Information Services (MIS), Controller General of Accounts (CGA). It may be noted that the basic responsibility of the CGA is to conduct audit of government departments but now it has to find out who misused funds in one of its own subsidiary department. The MIS chief looks after the entire set-up of CGA computer centres throughout the country.
The report for the year 2007-2008, which was presented to the Controller General of Accounts recently, mentioned a number of cases in which malpractices were detected.
Interestingly, Director General MIS Ms Ashfaq Sheikh, who presented the report to the CGA on October 7, was transferred to another position the very next day. Ms Sheikh challenged her transfer at the Islamabad High Court stating that she had been removed from the seat against government rules.
During the checking of stock registers and other related record of its machinery and hardware store, the auditors detected a huge misappropriation worth Rs16 million. In most of the cases, items were not purchased and fake entries were recorded in the registers; while equipment shown as purchased in the record were found missing. These items included both computer hardware and software.
A number of items were shown issued to other offices of CGA which did not have any relevance and concern with the DG MIS. Moreover, no records of issuance and receipt of these items were available. Furthermore, in most of the cases, approval of the competent authority - DG MIS - for transfer of the equipment was not taken. The report recommended that missing of these items should be reported to law-enforcement agencies for necessary action.
Similarly, stationery items worth Rs522,704 were shown as purchased, entered into the record book and then issued. However, neither the names and addresses of the recipients nor their acknowledgement receipts were available in the record. Therefore, the report determined the purchase of the stationery as fictitious and the amount embezzled.
In a similar case, stationery items worth Rs62,362 were shown purchased but neither entered into stock register nor issued to any department. The investigators suggested the issue should be properly investigated followed by necessary actions to recover the loss sustained to the government exchequer. An embezzlement of Rs47,750 was also found on the account of fictitious repairs of an official vehicle that too was used by an official who was not authorised to avail of the facility under the staff car rules.
A fraudulent case of TA/DA worth Rs194,817 availed by an officer of the administration section of the DG was also detected. Interestingly, the official had claimed TA/DA for his trips to various cities; however, his signature on the office files showed he was present in the office on those dates. The report recommended strict disciplinary action against the official for fraud and misuse of authority, and recovery of the embezzled amount from him. A similar case of unlawful TA/DA worth Rs57,650 was also reported.
In another case, various items including a laptop and two CNG kits worth Rs286,000 were shown stolen in the record. However, neither departmental inquiry was conducted nor any FIR registered with the police. Departmental as well as police investigations were recommended in this case.
The report also uncovered consumption of petrol over and above the recommended ceiling worth Rs260,398 by the officials of the DG MIS.
Cases of unauthorised use of official charge, non-completion of ACRs and non-maintenance of record and cashbooks were also detected by the auditors.