The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday directed the Cabinet Division to either amend the rules or take bulletproof vehicles back from VVIPs in a month.
Cabinet Division procured 22 bulletproof vehicles at a cost of Rs 600 million in 2005 on orders of then prime minister Shaukat Aziz that were later provided to VVIPs without amending the concerned rules and regulations. The PAC also directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to submit a report on the progress of construction work of Park Enclave Housing Project in the next meeting.
The PAC met with Nadeem Afzal Gondal in the chair to look into audit objections of the Cabinet Division and attached departments.
Members including Haider Abbas Rizvi, Hamid Yar Hiraj, Noor Alam Khan and others attended the meeting and raised numerous queries about the fiscal management of the Cabinet Division and its attached departments.
To auditors’ observations, Cabinet Division Secretary Nargis Sethi briefed the committee on the 22 bulletproof vehicles.
The PAC was apprised that currently the vehicles were being used by VVIPs like the NA speaker, Senate chairman, army chief, Nawaz Sharif, Shujaat Hussain, chief ministers of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, Hina Rabbani Khar, Asfandyar Wali Khan, Qamar Zaman Kaira, while three were assigned to the Prime Minister’s House, however, whereabouts of 10 bulletproof vehicles was not clear. The vehicles were procured after a suicide attack on then prime minister and it was decided to provide bulletproof vehicles to national political and military leadership to counter terror attacks, however, Cabinet Division officials failed to elaborate the facts before the committee. Consequently, the PAC directed the Cabinet Division to either amend relevant rules or take the said vehicles back from the users in a month.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman Dr Muhammad Yaseen confessed that all PTA employees were paid one basic pay as ‘Eidi’ on last Eid and he himself withdrew Rs 0.35 million as ‘Eidi’.
To this, the PAC directed the PTA to observe prescribed rules and regulation while running the business of the organisation.
The PAC chairman observed that heads of the autonomous bodies and departments usually took decisions according to their will without caring for rules and regulations.
Auditors pointed out that CDA purchased furniture at the cost of Rs 1.5 millions for Parliament Lodges five years before the completion of Parliament Lodges’ construction in 1997. Early purchase resulted in rusting away of the furniture.
CDA Chairman Engineer Farkhand Iqbal explained that the said furniture was purchased before time just to serve the purpose of upcoming OIC summit event which was later provided to Parliament Lodges. PAC directed CDA to run the financial matters in accordance with the prescribed rules.
