The Sindh Public Accounts Committee will hire third party auditors for better accountability of the universities while a committee of provincial assembly members would also visit finance departments of the varsities to keep a check on their financial issues.
PAC Chairman Saleem Raza Jalbani stated this while presiding over a meeting to overview the accounts of Karachi University and Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences at Sindh Assembly.
He said the committee could not rely on the on DG Audit as they carry out audit of only 25 per cent accounts, instead third party auditors would provide them more chances to thoroughly check the financial matters of the Sindh varsities.
The PAC committee viewed the remaining irregularities of KU and LUMS universities which were cleared by DG Audit after being provided with proofs of transactions. The two irregularities of LUMS which were presented before the committee were Rs 0.969 million in terms of non-accounting of store articles and Rs 0.169 of non-recovery of temporary advances. The DG Audit said the receipts for payments made were provided by the varsity administration, therefore, the issues were cleared.
However, Jalbani asked as to why the issues were not resolved in 2009, when the audit identified the irregularity, and it took almost five years to clear the matter. He asked the varsity vice chancellor to review matter of other remaining years so that committee should spend its time on other important issues.
The committee sent Rs 46.323 million irregularities found in KU to sub-committee despite being cleared by the DG Audit. The vice chancellor told the meeting that out of the total amount, Rs 35 million were spent on purchasing books and journals and as per Sindh government law, library material and books could be purchased without calling tenders. He further said that receipts of remaining amount were provided to DG Audit, who also verified the transaction.