ISLAMABAD, July 2: Financial irregularities to the tune of Rs323.182 million have been detected in the accounts of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and its subsidiary departments, audit report 1999-2000 revealed.
The findings of the report, pertaining to various departments of the ministry, were reviewed in a meeting of Ad-hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
The committee expressed dissatisfaction over developments in the scientific field, although an expenditure of Rs800 million had been incurred by the science and technology ministry for various projects.
Going through the audit report, the PAC chairman, HU Beg, said it was a symphony of irregularities. He questioned the irregular expenditure from heads of accounts that did not permit such spending.
He expressed dissatisfaction with the explanations offered by the chairman of Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) regarding scientific research, development of new products, patents and progress, despite the fact that the government had spent Rs800 million on upgradation of the council laboratories.
According to the audit report, an amount of Rs254.246 million was spent in violation of rules; Rs4.237 million were pointed out as losses; Rs4.082 million were spent in violation of propriety; Rs0.471 million due to negligence; and Rs16.32 were termed as recoverables. Besides, record was not made available in respect of expenditures worth Rs5.953 million.
The PAC chairman directed the principal accounting officer (PAO) to initiate inquires to fix responsibility and to ensure early recovery of the amount pointed out as recoverable in the report.
It was revealed that out of 300 scholars sent abroad for higher studies, 80 per cent did not return, nor was their record maintained by the science and technology ministry.
The PAO) was also directed to re-organize the ministry so that a capacity could be created to retain such scientists for the benefit of the nation.
The PAC was informed that out of 350 scientific research processes, only eight were selected to test the competition and only one — Musaffah water purifier — was commercialized. Out of 20 brands of mineral water being sold in the market, 11 were found to be defective. It was revealed that MoST had issued license only to Nestle and Aqua Pure.
The PAC chairman deplored the non-utilization of grants and their surrender by the ministry to the tune of Rs31.819 million and Rs51.79 million during 1999-2000. The grants were meant for scientific and technological research and development expenditure.
The chairman termed the bad budgeting by the ministry as unfortunate, especially when it was supposed to be leading the nation.
In response to the explanation offered by the PAO, the senior deputy auditor-general observed that demands for funds were made in a casual fashion and implementation process seemed to be lethargic, resulting in heavy surrender.
The PAC chairman directed the PAO to ensure proper budgeting, monitoring, all-time supervision and computerization of budgetary allocations to overcome the problem.