ISLAMABAD – A mega scam in the federal Interior Ministry involving embezzlement of Rs 825 million is in the making, as officials have not provided auditors with the details of the money credited into the government’s account. Documents available with Pakistan Today reveal that the Interior Ministry had issued 88,838 arms licenses in 15 months from March 28, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
The estimated fee collected by the Interior Ministry for these arms licenses was Rs 515.51 million and this sum had to be deposited in the government’s treasury. A source said the Interior Ministry was asked on March 13, 2009 to provide reconciliation statement to auditors for verification. “Despite ten months going by, the reconciliation process has not been completed,” the source said, adding that this embezzlement took place during Rehman Malik’s stint as the Interior minister.
Similarly, the Interior Ministry has been accused of irregular purchase of an aircraft for Balochistan Constabulary in 2006 in violation of PC-1, as the amount provided for the purchase was Rs 50 million, but the management paid Rs 138.50 million without provisions in PC-1 and without approval of the steering committee. “The aircraft purchased had different specification than given in the PC-1,” the report said.
In another instance, the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP), which works under the Interior Ministry, collected Rs 41.81 million in 2008-09 and used this money to meet departmental expenses over and above its budget without approval of the Finance Division. The federal treasury rules state that all money received by or tendered to government officers should be deposited with the treasury without delay and the money so received should not be appropriated to meet departmental expenditure nor should it be kept apart from the public account and the utilisation of such funds is unauthorised.
Also, irregular deduction and retention of Rs 113 million was made from salaries of officials and the amount was kept in an unknown account. “Approximately, a sum of Rs 59.28 million was deducted without authorisation by the government,” the report said. The record of the deposit and disbursement was not shown to auditors. Similarly, a sum of Rs 53.94 million was also deducted, as the auditors are of the view that the deduction and retention of the money was irregular and unjustified.
It has also been pointed out that the Frontier Corps (FC) had drawn Rs 13 million for the purchase of arms and ammunition, but no purchase was made and this money was kept in a private bank account instead of going into the government account. A sum of Rs 1 million was misused for the purchase of old vehicles and firewood, the report added.
