Expressing annoyance over the failure of police in recovering outstanding dues of millions of rupees from the government despite being given a year, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Sindh Assembly on Tuesday directed the Police Department to complete the task within 15 days.
The arrears pertain to payments of police security guards provided to different federal and provincial departments and institutions, electricity bills of police residential areas, etc.
The meeting held at the Sindh Assembly Building on Tuesday was presided over by PAC Chairman and Pakistan People’s Party assembly member Jam Tamachi Unnar.
According to the documents available with Pakistan Today, government dues amounting to Rs 77.912 million on account of electricity charges and house rent allowances have not been recovered from the officers residing in around 16 buildings under the Sindh Police Department.
Several federal government institutions, including T&T Sukkur and Khairpur, State Bank of Pakistan, Kotri Bridge, House Building Finance Corporation, Hyderabad and National Bank branches, one in Sanghar and the other at Masroor Base, Karachi, have also defaulted on payments amounting to millions of rupees for hiring police guards for security. Meanwhile, the now-defunct City District Government Karachi – Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Karachi Development Authority – under the provincial government have to pay around Rs 308 million. At the meeting, the police officials informed the PAC members that the law enforcement department has recovered an amount of Rs 51 million out of the total arrears of Rs 1.17 billion in the past year.
The police officials were directed to ensure the recovery of electricity dues from residential areas under the control of police department.
Assuring the PAC chairman of completing the process within the specified time, Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mushtaq Shah and Home Department Additional Chief Secretary Waseem Ahmed among other police officials concerned said the department will assign Deputy Inspector General (Finance) Dost Ali Baloch to recover the outstanding bills and maintain the records.
It was decided that the PAC chairman and the Sindh IGP will both write separate letters to Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah requesting him to contact the federal government for recovering the outstanding dues of the state-run departments and institutions.
Taking notice of the continuous absence of ministers concerned at PAC meetings, Unnar said if the ministers cannot attend the meetings, they should at least hold meetings with their officials prior to and after the PAC meeting. “The ministers’ meetings with their officers can improve the performance of their departments, besides improvement in governance,” he said.
During the meeting, the PAC members pointed out that after the merger of Operation and Investigation wings of the police department, no traffic police is seen in the small towns of the province.
Replying that it could be due to shortage of personnel and official process of the merger, Sindh IGP Shah said that his department will soon ensure presence of traffic police at taluka levels
The PAC meeting could only settle four agendas out of the 31 in annual audit reports from 2006 to 2009 and deferred the remaining list of items due to lack of records and non-recovery of a major portion of outstanding bills.
