Parties in the coalition government need to resolve the controversy over the system of local government system on a priority basis since the issue was compromising the smooth functioning of government affairs, argued Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Jam Tamachi Unnar during a meeting of the committee held on Thursday at the Sindh Assembly Building.
The PAC met on Thursday to review the audit reports of the accounts of the Sports Department pertaining to year 2007-08. The issue of the local government system came under discussion when the secretary of the Sports Department, Shoaib Siddiqui, expressed his department’s inability to vacate playgrounds of the province which have been encroached upon. He told the PAC members that under the devolution plan, this was the responsibility of the district governments.
Tamachi retorted that if vacating encroached playgrounds was the responsibility of district governments, what could the provincial government do. He said that hundreds of playgrounds in Sindh were either encroached upon or non-functional due to administrative problems. Tamachi said that all secretaries of the government’s departments have termed the local government system responsible for such problems, and the controversy should be resolved immediately for the smooth running of administrative affairs.
Earlier, the PAC recommended to the government authorities to take appropriate measures in a case pertaining to the misappropriation of Rs90 million of the Sports Department. The PAC directed its staff to send letters to the Sindh chief minister, chief secretary and sports minister in this regard. Anti-Corruption Establishment Director Ghanwar Leghari told the PAC members that a case was registered on April 25, 2009 against the then director-general of the Sports Department, Ghulam Akbar Shah Bukhari, in connection with misappropriation of funds allocated for holding the National Games and the Sindh Games in 2008.
He said that the Department would submit a final challan of the case to the Anti-Corruption Court within a week. Sports Secretary Siddiqui told the PAC members that the accused in the case had been sent to jail but later, he secured release on bail. PAC Chairman Unnar expressed dissatisfaction over progress in the case, and said how was it possible for one person to be involved in such huge embezzlement of funds. He asked the department’s officials to hire a “good lawyer” to pursue the case in court.
PAC members were informed that the accused, Akbar Shah, had retired from service on August 14, 2008 but was enjoying all benefits including pension. PAC member Ghulam Mujadid Isran commented that a retired officer involved in misappropriation of funds could only enjoy such benefits if his former colleagues allowed him the opportunity to do so.
