ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: The ad-hoc Public Accounts Committee (PAC) took a serious notice of misappropriation of government money by the former post master general, Hyderabad, to the tune of Rs40.585 million.

The former post master general was alleged to have misappropriated the amount on account of misuse of fax money order payments, medical charges, bills to hospitals and payments to contractors, etc.

PAC Chairman H. U. Beg, who presided over a meeting of the committee at the Parliament House here on Wednesday, asked the principal accounting officer (PAO) to ensure a swift departmental action and follow up of the case with the National Accountability Bureau.

The chairman expressed anger over purchase of vehicles for Rs728,000 without obtaining an NOC from the Cabinet Division.

The meeting was informed that the purchase had been made from a wrong head of account and even after a lapse of 12 years, the director-general of the Pakistan Post Offices (PPO) had not obtained the required NOC from the Cabinet Division.

Mr Beg termed the expenditure a “belated disregard and violation of financial rules as well as procedures”, and directed the PAO not to repeat such expenses in future.

The PAC was informed that the PPO department had made irregular payments to the contingent staff against a misclassified head of account of Rs16.160 million and had blocked government money amounting to Rs3.365 million by retaining excess balance of postal stamps.

The department was alleged to have made payments of telephone bills in excess of prescribed ceiling of Rs701,000 and unjustified expenditure of Rs111,000 on the maintenance of departmental vehicle.

The PAC chairman directed the PAO to hold an inquiry, if required, regularize the expenditure on merit and adjust the expenses against proper classification of accounts.