KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday restricted all public universities of the province from borrowing overdrafts from banks for meetings their financial needs.
Sindh PAC Chairman Jam Tamachi Unnar presided chaired the committee meeting at the Sindh Assembly in which he directed the universities’ management to contain their expenses within their annual budgetary limits.
The decision was taken after the committee reviewed the 2006-07 and 2008-09 audit report of the University of Sindh. The university’s Finance Director Mushtaq Ahmed had informed the PAC that the university had to pay over Rs 10 million from their annual budget for overdrafts borrowed from a bank. The committee had also discussed the audit reports of Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur; University of Karachi; and Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah (Benazirabad).
Audit Director General Nazeer Ahmed Seehar told the journalists that the PAC deferred some parts of the audit reports and sought explanations from universities employees responsible for not producing relevant records at the time of audit and on account of other irregularities.
“PAC has also ordered an inquiry into the issuance of a tender by the Quaid-e-Awam University in violation of the prescribed rules”, he added.
Unnar said that the Sindh government had made efforts to improve implementation of financial discipline in public institutions.
