National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the Secretary Establishment to provide details of expenditure incurred during the training courses of bureaucrats in the last four years.
A PAC meeting was held in the Parliament House on Thursday under the chairmanship of Nadeem Afzal Chan.
PAC asked the Secretary Establishment to present a list of the bureaucrats trained during the last four years to the committee within ten days. In the meeting, PAC took notice of objections regarding the audit of financial accounts of Planning the Division for the year 2006-7. The committee was told that NLC imported seven land-cruisers and did not pay the relevant custom duty. PAC directed NLC to pay the custom duty that amounts to Rs 100 million in four monthly installments.
Secretary Planning Division informed the committee that National Highway Authority should allocate funds for making the Gawadar Port operational. In the meeting, Waseem Akhtar from Muttahida Qaumi Movement said that his party is not involved in the stoppage of payment for rent of nine shops, and the statement of POBI made in this regard was totally wrong. Officials of National Accountability Bureau said that General Headquarters and NAB are probing the financial loss in the investment made by NLC in stock exchange business.
About the financial loss in contracts given by NLC to the contractors of Peshawar and Swabi, DG NLC said an FIR has been registered against the officers involved in the project. Secretary Planning Division told PAC that more than 1000 development projects are under construction. About 89 projects will be completed by December this year. He said the cost of programs going on under People’s Works Program amounts to Rs 30 billion.
Most of the projects do not become functional after their completion, due to absence of funds, Secretary Planning Division added.
DG NLC observed that the profit earned by the organisation cannot be estimated, however, under Afghan Transit Trade agreement, NLC earned Rs 2 billion of profit.
Members of the PAC urged that the matter of refusal of Registrar Supreme Court to appear before the committee should also be raised.
