Delays increase costs of 627 development projects, PAC told

The secretary of the Planning Commission told the Public Accounts Committee on Thursday that the cost of 627 development projects have gone up due to delays in completion.

The PAC has sought a report from Planning Commission on ongoing development plans costing over five billion rupees.

A meeting of the Public Accounts Committee was held in Islamabad under the chairmanship of Syed Khursheed Shah in which the commission gave a detailed briefing on the ongoing plans.

The secretary of the Planning Commission informed the committee that 1,130 development plans were in the pipeline, out of which 888 were ongoing plans while 242 were new projects.

He added that 143 energy projects were underway for which 107 billion rupees had been allocated. He said that the energy projects would take between eight to nine years for completion.

The PAC expressed its disappointment on the absence of the auditor general. Audit officials told the committee that the auditor general was preoccupied with some other work due to which he could not attend the meeting.

Khursheed Shah said the auditor general should be informed that nothing was more important than the committee’s meeting.

The committee ordered the Planning Commission to furnish a detailed report from both the ministries and government departments separately in 10 days.